REVISITING MATTHEW 24

By Slade Skipper

For several hundred years, people have been bombarded with predictions that "Jesus is coming soon" and that "time will end." These predictions have failed to come to pass during the past several hundred years.

These predictions are based on the assumption that Jesus has not returned. Yet when Jesus spoke about his return, he used terms such as quickly and soon. To people living in the first century AD, he referred to "this generation" and to the fact that some of them would be alive when he returned. He also told them that "you" will hear certain things, "you" will see certain things, and "you" will do certain things.

Revisiting Matthew 24 seeks to examine what Jesus and his apostles said, without making any assumption about whether Jesus has returned or not. It asks, "What does the Bible actually say?"

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jun 4, 2025
• ISBN: 9798895264560

Book preview

REVISITING MATTHEW 24

Slade Skipper

ISBN 979-8-89526-455-3 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-89526-456-0 (digital)

Copyright © 2025 by Slade Skipper

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

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Conclusion

About the Author

1

In my childhood, there was a popular gospel song entitled Matthew 24. It made the assertion that we are living, surely living, in the days he speaks about. This was in reference to Jesus's comments recorded in the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew, the thirteenth chapter of Mark, and the twenty-first chapter of Luke. We were told that Jesus was going to return soon and that time would then end.

In the intervening time interval, more than seventy-five years, Jesus did not return soon, and neither did we experience the end of time. Someone had lied to us. But this was not the first time, nor would it be the last time. In fact, similar situations have been occurring for hundreds of years. Repeatedly, people have been told that Christ is coming soon and that time will then end. But these predictions don't come true. People have only experienced dashed expectations.

What does God say about prophets who make predictions and whose predictions do not come true? In Deuteronomy 18:20–22, God speaks about the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak. In verses 21–22, we read, And if thou say in thine heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken?' When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if that thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him. For centuries, prophets and teachers have prophesied things that did not follow nor come to pass. Thus, they have spoken presumptuously. In Jeremiah 14:14, we read, Then the Lord said unto me, ‘The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of naught, and the deceit of their heart.

God says that these modern-day prophets and teachers who have been predicting the return of Christ and the end of time, since their predictions did not come to pass, were not sent by him. Thus, they are self-called prophets and teachers. They are prophesying the deceit of their hearts. Genesis 6:5 tells us, And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. In Jeremiah 29:8 God said, Let not your prophets and diviners, that be in the midst of you deceive you,… for they prophesy falsely unto you in my name: I have not sent them. That's still good advice for us.

In their book Millennial Harbinger, Alexander Campbell and S. M. McCorkle said,

The general conflagration of the material world, with the heavens, is a hackneyed subject and forms a part of almost all things called sermons. Among the first impressions, which we receive, is something about the dissolution of nature, the world on fire, melted rocks and mountains, the war of the elements. These things have made a false impression on the mind, forming a part of our religion, held most sacred, almost as dear as immortality, and to question these things almost amounts to heresy. Thus, every passage we find in the Bible threatening fire or alarm is turned over to the final judgment.

They continued, Upon the constituted laws of nature, the world can never be destroyed by literal fire. I admit he who created can destroy, but who can give a reason why this beautiful earth is to be destroyed, because its occupants are sinners? Did not God know, before he created the world, that mankind would become sinners? Yet he created the world anyway. We are told in Genesis 1:31, after the creation of man, Then God saw everything that he had made, and indeed it was very good. So why would he plan to destroy that which he said was very good?

In Luke 16:15, Jesus said to the religious leaders of his day, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God. When one considers all the emphasis on the return of Christ and the end of time, it is obvious that these things are held in high esteem by many people. Just consider the number of books, journals, magazines, and sermons dealing with the subject. Thus, God declares these things to be abominations.

In John 8:44, Jesus said to the religious leaders, Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will [to] do. Jesus continued, He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own; for he is a liar, and the father of it. He continued in verse 47, He that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God. Here, Jesus tells us that the reason people listen to the voice of the modern-day self-called prophets and teachers, instead of listening to the voice of God, is because ye are not of God.

God desires that man know him. But we can never know him through our efforts. So he reveals himself. The Bible is the record of that revelation. God desires that we understand the Bible, his revealed word. Yet many people claim that they find the Bible confusing. They may go to Bible conferences to learn more of the biblical revelation, yet they come away saying that they are more confused than they were before they went.

Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 14:33 that God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. Thus, when people are confused about the Word of God, God is not responsible for that confusion. In James 3:16, we are told, For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. Envying and strife are usually evident among the modern-day self-called prophets and teachers.

Deuteronomy 29:29 reminds us that the secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law. Thus, it behooves us to be very careful how we handle those things that are revealed to us. Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3:16–17 that all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. Peter wrote in 2 Peter 1:21 that prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. The psalmist tells us in Psalm 119:89, For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. Also, 1 Peter 1:25 tells us, But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. Isaiah 40:8 says, The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

Since God's revealed Word shall stand for ever, we need to be very careful how we handle it. In Deuteronomy 4:2, we read the command, Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you. In Proverbs 30:6, we are told, Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar. Adding to the Word of God makes us liars.

People have been lied to repeatedly over the past several centuries. Things that were predicted did not come to pass. Only two possible sources exist for these lies. The first possible source of error would be with Jesus: Did he lie to us? That's a good question to ask. Many of