(24:3-51)
The end of the world will be signaled by wars, famines, disease, and earthquakes (6-7). And that's just
"the beginning of sorrows" (8). Next believers will be hated and killed by unbelievers (9), believers will hate and betray each other (10), false
prophets will fool people (11), iniquity will abound and love wax cold (12). But hey, if you make through all that, you'll be saved (13).
Only one more thing will happen before the end comes: the gospel will be preached throughout the world (14). Well, that and the abomination
of desolations will stand in the holy place (15), many false Christs and false prophets will show great signs and wonders (24), the sun and moon
will be darkened and the stars will fall (29), the sign of the son of Man will appear in the sky, everyone on earth will mourn, and then,
finally, the great and powerful son of Man will come in all his glory (30).
Oh, and all these things will happen within the lifespan of Jesus' contemporaries (34).
Or maybe not. Jesus was talking about things he knew nothing about (36). (See Mark 13:32.)
(24:3) "Tell us, ... what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?"
(24:6) "Wars and rumours of wars"
(24:7) "Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and
there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes."
(24:8) "All these are the beginning of sorrows."
(24:9) "Then shall they ... kill you: and ye shall be hated."
(24:10) "Then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall
hate one another."
(24:11) "Many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many."
(24:12) "Iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.."
(24:13) "He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved."
What must you do to be saved?
(24:14) "This gospel ... shall be preached in all the world ... and then shall the end come."
Jesus says the gospel will be preached to
all nations "and then shall the end come." But in Matthew 10:23, he said the
end would come before the gospel was preached to all the cities of Israel.
In any case, this is a false prophecy since the gospel has been preached throughout the world (as Paul says in
Romans 10:18) yet the world hasn't ended.
When will the world end?
(24:15) "When ye ... see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel
the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)"
If you see the abomination of desolation in the holy place, try to understand. God is trying to say
something.
(24:16) "Let them which be in Judea flee into
the mountains."
Why? Can't God find and kill them there, too?
(24:19) "Woe unto them that are with child, and
to them that give suck in those days."
Why? Does God especially hate
pregnant and nursing women?
(24:24) "There shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders."
Jesus himself, according to Acts 2:22, fits this
description.
(24:29) "The sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven."
Apparently, Jesus believed that the moon
produces its own light, and that the stars are lights held in place by a
firmament only a few miles above our heads.
(24:30) "Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all ... the earth mourn, and they shall see the
Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory."
Will Jesus' second coming be visible to all?
(24:31) "He shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect."
(24:32-33) "Learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:
So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors."
Based on these verses, Hal Linsey's The Late,
Great Planet Earth predicted that the end of the world would occur before 1988. The fig tree represents
Israel, Israel came back to life in 1948, and Jesus said the end would come within one generation (40 years).
(24:34) "This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled."
Jesus was a false prophet, since he predicted that the end of the world will come within the lifetimes of his disciples. The world didn't end then, and
according to Ec.1:4 it never will.
What the Bible says about the end of the world
Speaking of false prophets, the Jehovah's Witnesses used to interpret this verse to mean that some of those who witnessed
Jesus' return in 1914 would still be alive when Armageddon happened. Now that those alive in 1914 are now pretty much dead, the
JWs have given up on this prediction.
(24:35) "Heaven and earth shall pass away."
With the earth last forever?
(24:36) "But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven,
but my Father only." The best and earliest Greek manuscripts say, "not the angels of heaven, neither the son, but the Father only." But
apparently it bothered the scribes that there were some things Jesus didn't know, so they fixed it by omitting the phrase,
"neither the son." (Bart D. Ehrman, Misquoting Jesus (2005),
p.95)
(24:37) "As the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be."
Jesus believed that Noah's flood actually happened and he had no problem with drowning
everyone on earth. It'll be just like that when he returns.
(24:44) "In such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh."
(24:45) "Who then is a faithful and wise servant?"
For JWs,
this is the most important verse in the bible. It is the basis of their central dogma,
that the governing body of the Jehovah's Witnesses is the "faithful and wise servant,"
or as the NWT puts it "the faithful and discrete slave." As such, the governing body
must be obeyed in all matters and all of their teachings must be accepted. Those who do
so will survive Armageddon; those who do not, will not.
(24:48-51) "That evil servant ... The lord of that servant shall come
in a day when he looketh not for him ... And shall cut him asunder, and ... there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
God will come when people least expect him. Then he'll "cut [them] asunder." And "there shall be
weeping and gnashing of teeth."
What the Bible says about torture