Jesus’ Last Days Prophecy: Matthew 24 Explained

The Fulfilment of Matthew 24 Within One Generation

The video link is at the bottom of the page.

1. Introduction

Jesus’ Last Days Prophecy is the first lesson in our eschatology series. Matthew 24 is often cited as proof that we are currently in the Last Days. Jesus himself did, however, set out a timetable for the prophecy. To interpret His words correctly, we must start with the timeframe He gave His original audience.

A. The Timeframe Jesus Gave

Prior to Jesus giving the prophecy that is recorded in Matthew 24, He had already identified the generation on which the coming judgment would fall:

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

Matthew 23:36 (NKJV)

Christ’s declaration serves as the foundational premise for interpreting His eschatological prophecy. Consequently, the critical issue concerns the precise meaning of “this generation” and whether the phenomena detailed in Matthew 24 transpired within that period.

This doesn’t mean that every prophecy in the Bible about future events was fulfilled in that generation. Jesus’ ‘Last Days’ prophecy has to be separated out from the future ‘Final Advent’, the ‘Final Harvest’, the resurrection of the dead, the destruction of death and the ultimate consummation of the Kingdom of Christ.

2. How Long is a Biblical Generation?

A. Forty Years

Scripture is very clear that a generation is associated with 40 years. The generation that rebelled against God in the wilderness died out during the 40 years of wandering.

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 (NKJV)

The Psalms make the same association explicit:

For forty years I was grieved with that generation, and said, ‘It is a people who go astray in their hearts, and they do not know My ways.’

Psalm 95:10 (NKJV)

These passages clearly establish a biblical precedent for linking a particular generation to a forty-year period.

B. Four Hundred Years and Four Generations

Genesis 15 offers another important use of “generation” in prophetic chronology. God told Abram that his offspring would be in bondage for four hundred years and would return ‘in the fourth generation’.

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 (NKJV)

Within that particular prophecy, four hundred years are linked to four generations. That gives a fairly solid biblical basis for recognising an approximate hundred-year correspondence within that particular prophetic pattern.

Jesus’ prophecy about ‘this generation’ was fulfilled in approximately 40 years, with the ultimate fulfilment being the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 CE.

About 100 years after Jesus’ prophecy, we reach Hadrian’s period, with the destruction of Jerusalem and Judea once again. Hadrian’s intention to refound Jerusalem as Aelia Capitolina and the Bar Kokhba revolt of 132-135 CE provide a second chronological correlation with the four hundred years/four generations pattern of Genesis 15.

The 40-year fulfilment is the main chronological fulfilment of Jesus’ statement about ‘this generation’. The later Hadrianic events provide a secondary fulfilment, but are not necessary to establish that His prophecy has been fulfilled.

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

The disciples’ questions in Matthew 24 stem directly from Jesus’ prophecy about Jerusalem and the Temple at the end of Matthew 23 and the beginning of Matthew 24.

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 (NKJV)

See also Mark 13:3–4 and Luke 21:7.

The disciples asked about three related matters:

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

These questions should not be assumed at the outset to describe three chronologically separate events. Their meaning must be determined from Jesus’ answer and from the New Testament’s use of expressions such as “this generation,” “coming,” and “the end of the age.”

A. Question 1: When Will These Things Be?

Jesus had already given His disciples the timeframe. Immediately before leaving the Temple, He declared:

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

Matthew 23:36 (NKJV)

Later in the same discourse, He repeated the chronological boundary:

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

Matthew 24:34 (NKJV)

Matthew 23:36 and Matthew 24:34 therefore form the prophecy in a chronological sequence. Jesus first said that “all these things” would come upon “this generation” and later said that “this generation” would not pass away until “all these things” had come to pass.

As we established in the previous section, Scripture provides a very strong forty-year precedent for a generation. Jesus gave that prophecy circa 30 CE. Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed in 70 CE, within that forty-year generation.

4. The Last Days Were Already Underway at Pentecost

A. Pentecost and the Beginning of the Last Days 

Peter was one of the disciples who heard Jesus’ prophecy about Jerusalem and the Temple (Mark 13:3). Jesus had said that “all these things” would happen within that generation. At Pentecost, Peter saw the events unfolding before him and identified them with Joel’s prophecy about “the last days”.

But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
‘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,
Your old men shall dream dreams.
And on My men-servants and on My maidservants
I will pour out My Spirit in those days;
And they shall prophesy.
I will show wonders in heaven above.
And signs in the earth beneath:
Blood and fire and vapour 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.
And it shall come to pass
that whoever calls on the name of the LORD
shall be saved.’

Acts 2:16-21 (NKJV)

Peter did not merely predict that the Last Days would begin at some distant future time. He applied Joel’s prophecy directly to the events his hearers were witnessing at Pentecost. The apostolic Church was already living within the period Scripture calls “the last days.”

Peter then confronted those gathered in Jerusalem with their rejection and crucifixion of 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 (NKJV)

Peter called his hearers to repentance:

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 (NKJV)

He then directed his warning specifically to the generation standing before him:

And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, ‘Be saved from this perverse generation.’

Acts 2:40 (NKJV)

B. The Day of the Lord Was Still Approaching

Although Peter himself identified his era as the ‘Last Days,’ Joel’s ‘great and awesome day of the Lord’ was still to come. Pentecost therefore marks the ‘Last Days’ as already begun rather than complete.

The sun shall be turned into darkness,
And the moon into blood,
Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD. And it shall come to pass
That whoever calls on the name of the LORD
Shall be saved

Acts 2:20-21 (NKJV)

Peter applies Joel to the Last Days, saying they were already upon us at Pentecost. Joel’s prophecy, however, describes the signs that precede the great and awesome day of the Lord. Pentecost marked the beginning of the apostolic Church’s experience of the Last Days, not the end of the prophetic period.

Jesus had already established the chronological boundary by declaring that “all these things” would come upon “this generation.” The New Testament writers subsequently described their own period as the Last Days, as Section 8 will demonstrate.

5. The Destruction of the Temple Ends the Last Days Period

Jesus prophesied the destruction of the Temple circa 30 CE. Within the forty-year generation He identified, Jerusalem fell, and the Temple was destroyed in 70 CE.

“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 (NKJV)

In 70 CE, the Roman legions under Titus captured Jerusalem. During the fighting, the Temple burned, and its buildings were destroyed. Josephus records that Titus ordered the city and the Temple demolished, although three prominent towers and part of the western city wall were preserved.¹

The destruction of the Temple therefore provides the primary forty-year fulfilment of Jesus’ one-generation prophecy. The remaining institutions of the Old Covenant, already made obsolete through Christ, lost their physical centre when the Temple was destroyed.

The present Western Wall, traditionally known as the Wailing Wall, is not a surviving wall of the Temple building. It formed part of the retaining structure supporting the expanded Herodian Temple Mount platform.²

Its survival, therefore, does not contradict Jesus’ prophecy concerning the destruction of the Temple buildings.

6. The Destruction of the Temple Within Forty Years

As Jesus lamented over Jerusalem, He directly linked its approaching desolation to the Temple and the generation living then.

“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)

Jesus then placed the fulfilment of these events within the lifetime of that generation:

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

Matthew 24:34 (NKJV)

Jesus prophesied the destruction of the Temple and declared that these events would occur within that generation. Forty years later, in 70 CE, the Temple was destroyed.

A. See! Your House Is Left to You Desolate 

The New Covenant was established through Christ, making the former covenant obsolete. Nevertheless, the Temple, Levitical priesthood and sacrificial system continued to operate physically until the destruction of Jerusalem.

Hebrews describes this transition clearly: the first covenant had been made obsolete, yet what was “becoming obsolete and growing old” was still “ready to vanish away.”

Jesus’ warning about Jerusalem’s desolation therefore targeted a system whose covenantal authority had already been superseded in Christ, yet whose Temple institutions remained.

“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 (NKJV)

Luke records the parallel warning:

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

Luke 21:20 (NKJV)

Matthew describes the “abomination of desolation,” while Luke describes Jerusalem “surrounded by armies” and states that its “desolation is near.” Read together, these passages place the approaching Roman armies at the centre of Jesus’ warning.

The initial warning sign appeared when Cestius Gallus surrounded and attacked Jerusalem in 66 CE.³ The resulting desolation culminated four years later in the Roman conquest of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple.

The phrase translated as “holy place” in Matthew 24:15 is ἁγίῳ τόπῳ (hagiō topō). Matthew does not further define the location in this verse. Luke’s parallel account supplies the historical setting by identifying Jerusalem surrounded by armies.

B. Jerusalem Surrounded by Armies

In 66 CE, Cestius Gallus advanced against Jerusalem with XII Fulminata, detachments from other Roman legions, auxiliaries and allied forces. He surrounded and attacked the city but then unexpectedly withdrew.

Josephus records that the Romans and their allies lost 5,300 infantry and 380 cavalry during Cestius Gallus’ disastrous retreat in 66 CE.⁴

The withdrawal created the opportunity Jesus had described:

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 (NKJV)

Following the Roman defeat and withdrawal, people began leaving Jerusalem. The chronology established in ‘When Prophecy Met History: The Great Tribulation’ places the beginning of this flight on 9 November 66 CE, with the principal period of departure extending through the following weeks and probably concluding around 15 December.

These dates are reconstructed from the historical sequence rather than explicitly recorded by Josephus. They mark the period when those who remembered Jesus’ warning could leave Jerusalem before the Great Tribulation began.

C. The Kingdom Established

Jesus had already established the New Covenant and His Kingdom before Jerusalem fell. The Old Covenant reached its fulfilment in Christ, while the Temple and sacrificial system continued physically for another forty years.

The destruction of the Temple did not establish Christ’s Kingdom. Christ was already reigning. The Millennium represents a subsequent phase of His already-established reign, beginning after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE, while the wider 2,300-day Great Tribulation continued until 10 April 73 CE.

The 1,335-Day Prophecy lesson identifies the blessing of Daniel 12:12 with this transition. In that chronology, the arrival of Jerusalem captives at Antioch on 12 December 70 CE marks the beginning of the millennial phase of Christ’s reign.

This date represents an AIM chronological interpretation rather than a date explicitly identified in Scripture as the beginning of the Millennium.

D. The Temple and the End of the Sacrificial System

The physical destruction of the Temple ended the remaining Temple-based sacrificial system.

The Old Covenant had already been fulfilled in Christ, but sacrifices continued in Jerusalem until the siege. The daily sacrifice ceased on 17 July 70 CE⁵, and the Temple was destroyed the following month.

Some contemporary Christian interpretations anticipate a rebuilt Temple and a restored system of animal sacrifice before Jesus’ final Advent. Such a restoration would conflict with the finality of Christ’s sacrifice and the New Testament identification of God’s people as His Temple (Hebrews 10:10-14; 1 Corinthians 3:16; Ephesians 2:19-22).

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… So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.

Colossians 2:14, 16-17 (NKJV)

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 (NKJV)

Hebrews affirms both realities. The New Covenant had already rendered the first covenant obsolete, while its remaining institutional expression was still “ready to vanish away.” In 70 CE, the destruction of the Temple permanently ended its priesthood and sacrificial system.

Josephus records that Titus initially sought to preserve the Temple. During the fighting, however, a Roman soldier threw a burning object into the Temple, and the fire spread uncontrollably despite Titus’ reported orders to extinguish it.⁶

E. The Carcass of the Old Covenant Order

Jesus used another striking image when describing the coming judgment:

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

Matthew 24:28 (NKJV)

The eagle, or aquila, was the principal standard of a Roman legion. The gathering of the Roman eagles against Jerusalem, therefore, provides the historical setting for Jesus’ imagery.

Josephus records that, following the burning of the Temple, the Romans brought their military standards into the Temple precincts, positioned them before the eastern gate and offered sacrifices to them. The physical presence of Roman standards at the conquered Temple provides a striking historical parallel to Jesus’ imagery of the gathering eagles.⁷

The “carcass” represents the obsolete covenantal order centred upon Jerusalem and its Temple. Christ had fulfilled the Law and established the New Covenant forty years earlier. Hebrews describes the former Covenant as obsolete, growing old and ready to vanish away

When the Roman legions gathered against Jerusalem, the remaining Temple-centred system came to its historical end. Josephus describes the devastation after the conquest:

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…

“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.”

Josephus, The Jewish War 7.1.1 (7.1-4)

They laid it so thoroughly into the ground, digging down to the foundation, that nothing remained to make those who came there believe Jerusalem had ever been inhabited.

The Roman eagles gathered over a covenantal order that had already become obsolete in Christ and whose remaining Temple institutions disappeared in 70 CE.

F. Further Judgement One Hundred Years Later

Jesus’ prophecy concerning the Temple had already reached its primary fulfilment within the forty-year generation in 70 CE. The Hadrianic period offers a separate, secondary chronological correspondence.

Around 130 CE, Emperor Hadrian began refounding Jerusalem as the Roman colony of Aelia Capitolina. The Bar Kokhba revolt followed in 132-135 CE and had catastrophic consequences for Judea’s Jewish population⁸. Jerusalem became a Roman colony, and after the revolt, Jews were generally prohibited from entering the city.⁹

These events occurred approximately one hundred years after Jesus’ prophecy. They therefore correspond with the four-hundred-years/four-generations pattern discussed in Genesis 15.

They are not required to establish the fulfilment of Jesus’ statement concerning “this generation.” The Temple had already been destroyed within the primary forty-year timeframe.

The chronology therefore presents two distinct correspondences:

• 70 CE – the primary forty-year fulfilment: Jerusalem and the Temple destroyed.

• c. 130-135 CE – the secondary approximately hundred-year correspondence: Hadrian’s refounding of Jerusalem and the Bar Kokhba period brought another catastrophic judgment upon Judea.

The forty-year fulfilment remains the principal chronological evidence for Jesus’ declaration that “this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.”

7. 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 (NKJV)

A. The Sign of the Son of Man

This coming of the Son of Man must be distinguished from Jesus’ future final Advent.

Matthew 24:30 states that people would see the Son of Man “coming” on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. The Greek word translated “coming” is erchomenon, from erchomai. Jesus had already declared that “all these things” would occur within the generation He was addressing.

As examined in ‘The Comings Of Christ: His Reign, Judgment And His Final Coming‘, Scripture describes several comings or visitations of Jesus and does not restrict every reference to His future final Advent. In Matthew 24, Jesus describes a coming in royal authority and judgment associated with Jerusalem within the generation to whom He spoke.

His language draws directly upon Daniel’s vision of the Son of Man:

“I was watching in the night visions,
And behold, One like the Son of Man,
Coming with the clouds of heaven!
He came to the Ancient of Days,
And they brought Him near before Him.
Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom,
That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion,
Which shall not pass away,
And His kingdom the one
Which shall not be destroyed.

Daniel 7:13-14

In Daniel’s vision, the Son of Man comes with the clouds to the Ancient of Days and receives dominion, glory and a Kingdom. The movement is toward the Ancient of Days, not a descent from heaven to earth.

Jesus’ use of this imagery therefore describes royal enthronement, authority and judgment. The enthroned Son of Man exercises the dominion of the Kingdom He has received.

B. The Sign of 67 CE

The tribulation of those days began to unfold during Cestius Gallus’ advance against Jerusalem and his subsequent withdrawal in late 66 CE. These events brought considerable distress upon the inhabitants of Judea and provided the opportunity to flee Jerusalem.

Within the chronology established in the related AIM lessons, the sign of the Son of Man followed that initial distress in 67 CE.

The phrase “immediately after the tribulation of those days” in Matthew 24:29 refers to the distress preceding the heavenly signs, not the completion of the entire 2,300-day Great Tribulation. In AIM’s calculated chronology, the latter extends from 23 December 66 CE to 10 April 73 CE. The distinction is examined more fully in The Comings of Christ: His Reign, Judgment and His Final Coming.

Josephus records an extraordinary phenomenon on 21 Artemisius, when chariots and armed troops reportedly appeared among the clouds, surrounding the cities. The historical account provides the principal evidence for identifying the heavenly armies with Jesus’ prophecy. Josephus gives the month and day but does not explicitly state the year. The placement in 67 CE follows the chronology established in AIM’s related research.

Tacitus also describes armies appearing in the heavens and extraordinary phenomena associated with the Temple. Pseudo-Hegesippus subsequently reproduced the account of heavenly chariots and armed troops in his adaptation of Josephus. These accounts preserve the ancient tradition of extraordinary signs preceding Jerusalem’s destruction.

In 67 CE, Vespasian began his military campaign against Judea. The Roman war culminated in the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 CE, fulfilling Jesus’ warning concerning the judgment that would come upon His generation.

The sign of the Son of Man, therefore, concerns the manifestation of Christ’s royal authority and His coming in judgment upon Jerusalem. It must not be confused with His future final Advent.

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

Matthew 23:36 (NKJV)

The chronological boundary remains decisive. The destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 CE brought the apostolic Last Days to their conclusion. The wider Great Tribulation reached its calculated endpoint in 73 CE, while the future Final Advent, resurrection, Final Harvest, and ultimate consummation of Christ’s Kingdom remain distinct events.

8. The Last Days

A. Peter at Pentecost

At Pentecost, Peter applied Joel’s prophecy directly to the events taking place before his hearers:

‘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 (NKJV)

Peter’s application places Pentecost within the period Joel called “the last days.” The Last Days were therefore already underway in the first century.

B. Paul:

Paul used the same language when writing to Timothy:

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 (NKJV)

He warned Timothy that perilous conditions would characterise the Last Days, then instructed him to turn away from people displaying these characteristics. His warning therefore addressed circumstances Timothy and the first-century Church could already recognise and confront, rather than describing an exclusively distant generation.

C. Hebrews

The opening of Hebrews provides particularly direct evidence that the Last Days had already begun. The writer contrasts God’s earlier revelation through the prophets with His revelation through Jesus Christ:

God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, 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 1:1-2 (NKJV)

The writer explicitly identifies the period in which God had spoken through His Son as “these last days.” He does not describe the Last Days as exclusively future but places his readers within the period already inaugurated through Christ.

D. Peter and Jude

Peter warned that scoffers would appear during the Last Days:

Knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.

2 Peter 3:3-4 (NKJV)

Jude recalls the same apostolic warning and applies it directly to the circumstances confronting his readers:

But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ: how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. These are sensual persons, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit.

Jude 17-19 (NKJV)

Peter warned that scoffers would come in the Last Days. Jude subsequently reminded his readers of that warning and identified such people among their contemporaries.

Jude’s application shows that the apostolic warnings about the Last Days were already being expressed within the first-century Church.

E. James

James provides another explicit identification of the Last Days with his contemporaries’ circumstances. Addressing wealthy people who had accumulated possessions while acting unjustly, he declared:

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 (NKJV)

James addresses people living in his own period and declares that they had accumulated their wealth “in the last days.” The language places his contemporary audience within those Last Days rather than identifying an exclusively future generation.

F. Conclusion

The New Testament writers’ testimony establishes a consistent chronological pattern. Peter applied Joel’s Last Days prophecy to Pentecost. Paul warned Timothy about Last Days conditions already relevant to his ministry. Hebrews identified the revelation of God through His Son with “these last days.” Jude recognised the fulfilment of apostolic warnings among his contemporaries, while James explicitly declared that wealthy people of his own period had accumulated treasure “in the last days.”

These passages establish that the apostolic Church was already living in the Last Days. Jesus had also placed the events of His prophecy within the generation He addressed.

The Last Days therefore belong to the first-century framework of Jesus’ prophecy, culminating in the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 CE. This conclusion does not eliminate the future Final Advent, resurrection, Final Harvest or ultimate consummation of Christ’s Kingdom, which Scripture addresses separately.

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

Having declared that “this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place,” Jesus continued:

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 (NKJV)

Jesus had established a chronological boundary for “all these things” in Matthew 24:34. He now introduced a different expression, “that day and hour,” emphasising that its precise timing was known only to the Father.

Matthew introduces verse 36 with the Greek expression περὶ δὲ (peri de), meaning “now concerning” or “but concerning.” This marks a transition in the discourse, but it does not establish that everything following verse 36 concerns the future Final Harvest.

The distinction must arise from the context of each passage rather than from an assumed chronological division.

The parables and warnings that follow address watchfulness, accountability and judgment. Their imagery must be understood within the historical and theological setting of Jesus’ teaching. Some warnings relate directly to the first-century generation, while others express principles extending beyond that period.

A. An Example – “Cut Him in Two”

Jesus’ warning concerning the unfaithful servant illustrates the importance of interpreting these passages carefully.

And will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Matthew 24:51 (NKJV)

The expression “cut him in two” describes an exceptionally severe punishment. The Greek verb διχοτομήσει (dichotomēsei) literally conveys dividing or cutting someone in two.

Such brutality is documented in the early Roman imperial period. Suetonius records that Emperor Caligula, who reigned from 37 to 41 CE, had people “sawn asunder.” Although these events followed Jesus’ prophecy, they demonstrate that this form of punishment was practised within the first-century Roman world.

Jesus had repeatedly condemned the hostile religious leadership and described His contemporaries as an “evil and adulterous generation” (Matthew 12:39; 16:4). His warning concerning the evil servant must therefore be examined within the same historical setting of covenantal unfaithfulness and approaching judgment.

The severity of Jesus’ imagery does not require us to conclude that God will literally cut unbelievers in two at the Final Harvest. The illustration communicates the consequences of unfaithfulness and judgment without establishing a literal method of divine punishment.

Jesus’ use of such imagery must remain consistent with the revealed nature and goodness of His Father, as examined in our accompanying theological lessons.

Matthew 24:36 therefore does not establish a rigid division between the first-century fulfilment of Jesus’ prophecy and the future Final Harvest. The meaning and timeframe of each subsequent warning must be determined from its own context.

10. The End of the Age and the Final Harvest

A. What is an Age?

The Greek word translated “age” is αἰών (aiōn), referring to an age, era or period of time. It differs from the Greek word for “generation” and does not necessarily signify the physical world or the end of human existence.

When Jesus spoke of “this age,” He meant the age in which He and His disciples lived. He also distinguished it from a future age.

“Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.”

Matthew 12:32 (NKJV)

When discussing the resurrection, Jesus made another distinction:

Jesus answered and said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage. But those who are counted worthy to attain that age, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage;

Luke 20:34-35 (NKJV)

These passages demonstrate that Jesus distinguished between different ages. However, we must interpret the expression “the age to come” in context. In Luke 20, Jesus specifically associates “that age” with the resurrection from the dead.

Consequently, the expression “end of the age” does not necessarily describe the destruction of the physical world. Its meaning depends upon which age the passage identifies.

B. Paul Also Spoke of “This Age”

Paul employed the same terminology when addressing the first-century Church.

“However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”

1 Corinthians 2:6-8 (NKJV)

He identifies the rulers associated with Jesus’ crucifixion as “the rulers of this age.” His statement is firmly anchored in the first-century world. He also declares that these rulers “are coming to nothing,” indicating that their authority was approaching its conclusion.

Later in the same epistle, Paul makes an even more explicit chronological statement:

“Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.”

1 Corinthians 10:11 (NKJV)

Paul does not place the “ends of the ages” exclusively in a distant future. He declares that they had already come upon his readers.

The Corinthian believers therefore lived during a decisive transition between ages. Paul’s language matches the period of fulfilment that Jesus identified in His prophecy concerning Jerusalem.

C. Do Not Be Conformed to “This Age”

Paul also used the expression in his letter to the Romans, although the English translation can obscure its meaning.

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

Romans 12:2 (NKJV)

The NKJV translates the expression as “this world,” but the Greek is τῷ αἰῶνι τούτῳ (tō aiōni toutō), literally “this age.”

Paul instructed the Roman Christians not to conform themselves to the prevailing character of the age in which they lived. He used the same terminology elsewhere:

“whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe…”

2 Corinthians 4:4 (NKJV)

Paul consistently recognised a particular age in which he and his contemporaries lived. His references to “this age” must therefore be examined within their first-century historical and theological context.

D. “This Age” and “The Age to Come”

Paul distinguished the age in which he lived from the age to come.

“…which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.”

Ephesians 1:20-21 (NKJV)

Paul declares that Christ’s authority extends over both ages. Christ had already been raised and seated at the Father’s right hand, possessing authority above every principality and power.

His enthronement did not await the conclusion of the age.

Jesus and Paul therefore distinguished “this age” from a future age while affirming Christ’s authority over both.

The precise nature of the coming age depends on the context of each passage. An age is not synonymous with the physical earth, and the conclusion of an age does not necessarily mean the end of human history.

E. The End of “This Age”

Jesus and the apostles lived in an age approaching its historical conclusion. Jesus established the chronological boundary for His Last Days prophecy:

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

Matthew 24:34 (NKJV)

Paul subsequently described the rulers associated with Jesus’ crucifixion as “the rulers of this age” and declared that “the ends of the ages” had come upon the Corinthian believers.

The New Covenant was established through Jesus’ death and resurrection in 30 CE. Nevertheless, Jerusalem’s Temple, Levitical priesthood and sacrificial system continued to function for another forty years.

In 70 CE, the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple brought the remaining Temple-based institutions of the Old Covenant to a close.

This marked the conclusion of the age in which Jesus and the apostles had lived. The covenantal order, made obsolete through Christ, finally lost its remaining institutional centre.

The end of “this age” must therefore be distinguished from the end of the physical world and the ultimate consummation of Christ’s Kingdom.

F. The Harvest at the End of the Age

Jesus used harvest imagery when describing the end of the age.

The enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. Therefore, as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age.

Matthew 13:39-40 (NKJV)

Jesus expressly associates the harvest with “the end of the age.”

The chronological setting of His teaching must guide its interpretation. Jesus spoke during the age approaching its conclusion, and He identified the generation in which the events of His Last Days prophecy would occur.

Consequently, we must first examine the harvest imagery of Matthew 13 within that historical and covenantal context rather than automatically transferring it to the end of human history.

Harvest imagery does not establish that every biblical passage describing a harvest refers to the same event. Scripture also describes a future resurrection and final judgment, which must be distinguished from the judgment upon Jerusalem.

The first-century conclusion of the age and the future Final Harvest are therefore distinct subjects that require their own scriptural foundations.

G. “Even to the End of the Age”

Jesus used the expression again when commissioning His disciples:

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptising 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.”

Matthew 28:19-20 (NKJV)

Jesus originally addressed these words to His first-century disciples.

The promise of His continuing presence accompanied their commission to proclaim the Gospel. The expression “to the end of the age” must be examined within the chronological framework of the age in which the disciples lived.

This does not mean that Jesus’ presence with His Church ceased in 70 CE. The New Testament establishes His reign and continuing relationship with His people throughout.

Rather, the historical conclusion of the age addressed in this passage must not automatically be equated with the end of human history.

H. The End of an Age Is Not the End of the World

The destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 CE brought the first-century covenantal age to its historical conclusion. It did not end human history or Christ’s reign.

Jesus’ prophecy concerning His generation must therefore remain distinct from the future consummation of His Kingdom. Scripture continues beyond the events of 70 CE to describe His final Advent, the resurrection of the dead, the Final Harvest and the destruction of death itself.

I. The Final Harvest

Although Jesus and the apostles lived in an age that ended in 70 CE, Scripture describes a future resurrection and judgment that extend beyond Jerusalem’s historical destruction. Jesus declared:

“Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth – those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.”

John 5:28-29 (NKJV)

Jesus describes the resurrection of those who are in the graves. This is not merely the national judgment that came upon Jerusalem but an event involving the dead themselves.

The future Final Harvest, therefore, remains distinct from the first-century judgment upon Israel.

Scripture identifies the ultimate consequence of sin as death, while everlasting life is God’s gift through Jesus Christ (Romans 6:23; 2 Timothy 1:10). Immortality is not an inherent possession of humanity. The imagery of fire and judgment must therefore be interpreted in light of Scripture’s teaching concerning death, resurrection and the destruction of evil, rather than assuming that the final punishment requires eternal conscious torment.

Revelation describes the future judgment of the dead:

“And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. Another book was opened, the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.”

Revelation 20:12-14 (NKJV)

The passage describes the resurrection and judgment of the dead, followed by the destruction of Death and Hades.

The final punishment is identified as “the second death.” Those who belong to Christ receive the gift of everlasting life, while those who remain outside Him ultimately perish.

The Final Harvest, therefore, brings humanity to its final judgment and prepares the way for death’s destruction.

J. The Kingdom Returned to the Father

The Final Harvest is followed by the ultimate consummation of Christ’s reign. Paul sets out the sequence clearly:

“For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterwards those who are Christ’s at His coming. Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority, and power, for He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.”

1 Corinthians 15:22-26 (NKJV)

Paul does not teach that Christ begins to reign at the Final Harvest. He declares that Christ “must reign till” all His enemies have been placed under His feet.

Christ’s reign began through His resurrection and enthronement. His Kingdom was established before the destruction of Jerusalem, and the Millennium represents a subsequent phase of that already-established reign.

Paul places the resurrection of those who belong to Christ at His future coming. This is followed by “the end,” when every opposing authority has been subjected and death, the last enemy, is destroyed.

Only then does Christ deliver the Kingdom to God the Father. Paul continues:

“Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.”

1 Corinthians 15:28 (NKJV)

This is the ultimate consummation of Christ’s reign. The Kingdom does not begin at this point. Rather, Christ completes the purpose of His reign, destroys the final enemy and delivers the Kingdom to the Father, “that God may be all in all.”

K. Two Different Ends

The New Testament describes two distinct conclusions that must not be confused.

The end of “this age” concerns the first-century covenantal order and culminates in the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 CE.

The future Final Harvest concerns the resurrection and judgment of the dead, the destruction of death and the ultimate consummation of Christ’s Kingdom.

The prophetic sequence is therefore:

• The end of “this age”: Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed in 70 CE, bringing the apostolic Last Days to a close.
• Christ’s continuing reign – His Kingdom, established through His resurrection and enthronement, enters the millennial phase identified in AIM’s chronology with 12 December 70 CE. The wider 2,300-day Great Tribulation continues until 10 April 73 CE.
• Jesus’ future final Advent – those who belong to Christ are raised, and the Final Harvest takes place.
• The final judgment – evil is judged, and the last enemy, death, is destroyed.
• The Kingdom delivered to the Father – Christ completes His redemptive reign, “that God may be all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28).

Jesus’ one-generation prophecy reached its historical fulfilment in the first century. The future Final Harvest remains the ultimate conclusion of Christ’s redemptive reign, when death itself is destroyed and the Kingdom is delivered to the Father.

11. Futurist Interpretations

Futurist interpretations understand significant portions of biblical prophecy as awaiting fulfilment in events associated with Jesus’ future return. These interpretations differ concerning Matthew 24, the Tribulation, the Millennium, and the relationship between Israel and the Church.

Our disagreement concerns how we interpret and time particular prophecies. AIM also affirms Jesus’ future Final Return, the resurrection of the dead, the Final Harvest and final judgment.

A. Matthew 24 and the Future

Many futurist interpreters understand substantial portions of Matthew 24 as describing events immediately preceding Jesus’ future return. Others recognise a first-century fulfilment while expecting a further future fulfilment. AIM begins with the chronological boundary Jesus gave His hearers:

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

Matthew 23:36 (NKJV)

Jesus repeated this boundary in His prophecy:

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

Matthew 24:34 (NKJV)

We understand “this generation” as the generation Jesus addressed. Consequently, we interpret the events governed by these statements within their first-century setting, culminating in Jerusalem’s destruction in 70 CE.

Affirming Jesus’ future Final Advent does not require us to transfer the judgment He assigned to His own generation into a distant future.

B. Futurism and Dispensationalism Are Not the Same

Modern dispensationalism developed principally through John Nelson Darby’s nineteenth-century teaching and subsequently gained influence through the Scofield Reference Bible.

Darby’s framework distinguished Israel from the Church and linked that distinction to a particular understanding of the Rapture, Tribulation, Christ’s return, and the Millennium.

However, Christians anticipated Jesus’ future return, resurrection and judgment long before Darby. Belief in these future events does not, by itself, make someone a dispensationalist.

Futurism must also be distinguished from cessationism. Cessationism concerns the continuation of spiritual gifts; futurism concerns the interpretation and fulfilment of prophecy. They address different questions and should be assessed separately.

C. Futurism Before Darby and Post-Tribulation Millennialism

Millennial expectations existed many centuries before modern dispensationalism. Justin Martyr, for example, anticipated a resurrection and a thousand-year reign in Jerusalem, while acknowledging that other Christians did not share his millennial expectation.

Early Christian eschatology was therefore diverse. These writers should not be presented as holding one uniform system identical to a modern theological position.

AIM recognises a limited similarity with the tribulation-before-Millennium sequence. However, modern post-tribulationism generally concerns the gathering of believers at Christ’s future return following a future Tribulation. AIM places the Jerusalem-associated tribulation in the first century and distinguishes it from Jesus’ future Final Return.

Christ’s Kingdom was already established before Jerusalem’s destruction. The Millennium represents a subsequent phase of His existing reign.

Our chronology also distinguishes Jerusalem’s destruction and the subsequent millennial transition in 70 CE from the conclusion of the wider 2,300-day period in 73 CE. The millennial transition therefore precedes the conclusion of the wider 2,300-day period.

D. Why This Lesson Takes a Different View

AIM interprets Jesus’ Last Days prophecy within the chronological framework Jesus established, and the apostolic writings reflect.

Peter applied Joel’s Last Days prophecy to Pentecost. Hebrews described God’s revelation through His Son as occurring “in these last days.” Paul told the Corinthians that “the ends of the ages” had come upon them (Acts 2:16-17; Hebrews 1:1-2; 1 Corinthians 10:11).

We understand these statements as identifying the apostolic period with the Last Days of the age, as it approached its conclusion.

The New Covenant was established through Christ. Jerusalem’s destruction in 70 CE subsequently brought the Temple, its sacrifices and its priestly institutions to an end. Christ’s Kingdom continued beyond that judgment.

The future consummation remains distinct. We still anticipate Jesus’ Final Advent, the Final Harvest, the resurrection of the dead, final judgment, the destruction of death and the delivery of the Kingdom to the Father.

Our interpretation therefore preserves both the first-century fulfilment of Jesus’ one-generation prophecy and the future consummation described in 1 Corinthians 15:22-28.

12. Summary of the Last Days Prophecy by Jesus

Jesus established a clear chronological boundary for His Last Days prophecy. He declared that “all these things” would come upon “this generation” and that the generation He addressed would not pass away until those events had occurred (Matthew 23:36; Matthew 24:34).

A. Last Days

AIM understands this prophecy within its first-century setting. Jesus delivered it around 30 CE, and Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed in 70 CE, corresponding with the biblical precedent of a forty-year generation.

The apostles recognised that they were already living in the Last Days. Peter applied Joel’s prophecy to Pentecost, Hebrews described God’s revelation through His Son as occurring “in these last days,” and Paul declared that “the ends of the ages” had come upon his readers (Acts 2:16-17; Hebrews 1:1-2; 1 Corinthians 10:11).

The New Covenant was established through Christ’s death and resurrection. The Temple, its sacrifices and its priestly institutions nevertheless continued until Jerusalem’s destruction in 70 CE. AIM understands that destruction as the historical conclusion of the age in which Jesus and the apostles lived.

Christ’s Kingdom was already established, and His reign continued beyond Jerusalem’s judgment. The Millennium represents a subsequent phase of His existing reign. Our chronology distinguishes the millennial transition in 70 CE from the conclusion of the wider 2,300-day period in 73 CE.

The Hadrianic events beginning around 130 CE provide a secondary correspondence within AIM’s discussion of the four-hundred-years/four-generations pattern in Genesis 15. They are not required to establish the primary fulfilment of Jesus’ one-generation prophecy in 70 CE.

This first-century fulfilment does not mean that all biblical prophecy has been fulfilled. Jesus’ Final Return, the Final Harvest, the resurrection of the dead, final judgment, the destruction of death and the delivery of the Kingdom to the Father remain future.

B. Future Consummation

Paul describes the ultimate consummation:

“Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power, for He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.”

1 Corinthians 15:24-26 (NKJV)

Christ reigns until every enemy has been subjected to Him. The destruction of death brings His redemptive reign to its appointed goal, and the Kingdom is delivered to the Father, “that God may be all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28).

Jesus’ Last Days prophecy therefore retains its first-century fulfilment, while the Church continues in confident expectation of resurrection, the final defeat of death and the consummation of Christ’s Kingdom.

Historical and Scholarly References

1.  Josephus, The Jewish War 7.1.1 (7.1-4). ↩︎
2.  Moran Hagbi and Joe Uziel, “Jerusalem, the Old City, The Western Wall Foundations,” Hadashot Arkheologiyot 127 (2015). ↩︎
3.  Josephus, The Jewish War 2.19.4-7 (2.527-544). ↩︎
4.  Josephus, The Jewish War 2.19.9 (2.551-555). ↩︎
5.  Josephus, The Jewish War 6.2.1 (6.93-94) ↩︎
6.  Josephus, The Jewish War 6.4.5-7 (6.249-266). ↩︎
7.  Josephus, The Jewish War 6.6.1 (6.316). ↩︎
8.  Cassius Dio, Roman History 69.12.1-2 ↩︎
9.  Jodi Magness, The Archaeology of the Holy Land: From the Destruction of Solomon’s Temple to the Muslim Conquest (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), chap. 13, 271- 285. Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 4.6.3-4. ↩︎

AI Assistance Disclosure

Most of the research and writing for this lesson was prayerfully undertaken by Dr Neville Westerbeek van Eerten. AI tools assisted with editorial review and checks of consistency, references and chronology. Some wording and illustrations were developed with AI assistance. The author reviewed the final material and retains responsibility for its interpretations, accuracy and conclusions.

© Use by Permission Awakening Impact Ministries/Dr Neville Westerbeek van Eerten D. Miss. 2027