Kingdom Eschatology DEBATES 2

MF Blume
July 2000

Question -Could you please explain to me how Mat 24:31 was fulfilled in 70 A.D.? How is it that His elect had to be gathered from the uttermost parts of the heavens at the destruction of Jerusalem?

First of all, the elect is the church. Secondly, they are also said to be gathered from the four winds. The four winds are the four spirits (Hebrew for SPIRIT is wind ) in Zechariah 6:5, which the angel said were the four horses that we also find in Revelation 6.

Zechariah 6:1-5 And I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and, behold, there came four chariots out from between two mountains; and the mountains were mountains of brass. In the first chariot were red horses; and in the second chariot black horses; And in the third chariot white horses; and in the fourth chariot grisled and bay horses. Then I answered and said unto the angel that talked with me, What are these, my lord? And the angel answered and said unto me, These are the four spirits of the heavens, which go forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth. {spirits: or, winds}
Matthew 24 is the same order of events as the six seals of Revelation 6. Therefore, the reference to horses as four winds/spirits in Zech 6 connects us to the four horses in Revelation 6, which is why Revelation 7 notes four winds. And Matthew 24 lists the four horses in the same order at the first of the chapter in verses 4 to 9. So it is deliverance of the church from the trials and evils of the horses.

Also, all the earth sometimes does not literally mean all the earth.

Gene 41:56 And the famine was over all the face of the earth: And Joseph opened all the storehouses, and sold unto the Egyptians; and the famine waxed sore in the land of Egypt.
It refers to the then-known world..

To the Jew, Jerusalem was the centre and Rome was the ends of the earth.

Acts 17:6 And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also;
We know that was not literally the whole world.
Question - And if He also gathered His elect from the uttermost parts of the earth at this time, why did He tell them to flee Judaea just before that?"

This is the entire point of Kingdom Eschatology. Judaea was where the events would take place. That is why it did not tell everyone across the world to hide. When the Christians, in 70 AD, saw the armies of Rome surround Jerusalem, they fled and were saved. Not one of them perished. They fled to Pella , while all the Jews in Jerusalem who disbelieved Jesus' words, stayed and perished.

He gathered them into safety away from the destruction and siege. And He gathered them away and outside the city. He would have gathered together Jerusalem's people as a whole, but they refused and said that generation would see the house left desolate.

Matt 23:36-38 Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, [thou] that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together , even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
But where they rejected Him, losing safety in His gathering, in THAT generation, the contrast is that the Church accepted Him and were gathered.
Matt 24:31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Matt 24:34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.

Compare the emboldened points in both chapters 23 and 24. he is speaking contrasts to occur in the same time. And chapter 23 distinctly referred to 70 AD.
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