The Olivet Discourse, Part 6

Jim ButlerMatthew 24:21–22

Matthew 24:21–22 describes a 'great tribulation' and its sovereign limitation — but what event does this language describe? Working through a preterist reading of the Olivet Discourse, this sermon argues that verse 21's unparalleled tribulation language refers to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, not to a future global event. Drawing on parallel idioms in Exodus 11, Ezekiel 5, Ezekiel 7, and Daniel 9, the sermon demonstrates that such hyperbolic judgment language is standard biblical speech for covenantal catastrophe, and that the AD 70 destruction constituted the decisive covenantal transformation by which the kingdom was taken from old covenant Israel and given to the church. The sermon closes with a direct call to sinners to flee to Christ, whose promise in John 6:37 and 1 John 3:23 provides the warrant for faith.