Theological term
Grammar of Prophecy
2 sermons · All terms
The Olivet Discourse, Part 9
Matthew 24:30–31 presents what many regard as the decisive difficulty for a preterist reading of the Olivet Discourse: the Son of Man coming on clouds and the gathering of the elect. This sermon argues that both verses are best understood through the grammar of Old Testament prophetic and apocalyptic language, in which cloud-coming consistently signifies God's judicial intervention against nations rather than a physical, bodily descent. The primary interpretive key is Daniel 7:13–14, read as an ascension text in which the Son of Man comes *to* the Ancient of Days, receives universal dominion, and then sends forth messengers to gather his elect — a movement that corresponds to Christ's post-resurrection enthronement and the subsequent worldwide proclamation of the gospel. Hearers are urged to rest their souls in the present, active reign of Christ at the Father's right hand, and to guard against both false teaching and carnal anxiety by understanding what Scripture actually teaches about the session and kingdom of the ascended Lord.
The Olivet Discourse, Part 8
Matthew 24:29 presents one of the most contested verses in the Olivet Discourse: does its cosmic imagery — a darkened sun, a moonless sky, falling stars, and shaken heavens — describe a literal end-of-the-world event, or does it employ a well-established grammar of Old Testament prophetic language? This sermon argues the preterist case that verse 29 deploys figurative apocalyptic language drawn from Isaiah, Ezekiel, Joel, Amos, and others to announce the covenantal destruction of Old Covenant Israel in AD 70, immediately after the tribulation of those days. Five considerations are developed: the two time-markers tethering verse 29 to its context, the figurative meaning of cosmic collapse language, the extensive Old Testament background, the role-reversal of Israel becoming Babylon, and the implications for continuity in the new heavens and new earth. The sermon closes with a direct summons from Amos 5 — that there will be no escape on the final day of judgment, and that faith in Jesus Christ alone is the only refuge.