End Time Prophecies in Matthew and their Meaning

A lot of people criticize the “latter rain” movement.  While I don’t know enough about it to endorse it, I do agree with their founding principle: there will be an end-time revival.

I believe that Matthew 24:14 means that before the end comes (the antichrist and the beast), there will be revival throughout the whole world.  In this way, it is Biblical.

Matthew 24:14 ESV:

And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

Here’s another important end-time prophecy in Matthew:

Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand. So, if they say to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out. If they say, ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.

Matthew 24:23-28 ESV

So this verse indicated that the coming of the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, will be visible and palpable to everyone!  Everyone will know about it and either mourn because they have rejected Jesus, or they will rejoice because their King has come back.  Don’t believe the false prophets who say they have come back as Christ, because Christ’s coming will be immediate and everyone will immediately know in their conscience that they will be judged.  It will be immediate.  The last part of Matthew 24:28 has always been puzzling to me, but I feel I have an interpretation.

Wherever the corpse is, the vultures will gather, means that wherever the false Christ is, those who eat dead things will gather.  Those who eat from false Christs eat dead things that cannot give life.  Whoever feeds on rotten flesh will gather to the false Christs and partake of them.  The symbolism is such because Christ tells us to eat of His living flesh and drink of His living blood.  These people who favor dead things will partake of the body of the dead false Christ who leads them.

This verse can be confusing to Western readers because we sometimes call those who prey on others "vultures," which would denote that the leader is the vulture.  But in this scenario the followers are the vultures.

Here is another good one!

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Matthew 24:29-31 ESV

It says immediately "after" the tribulation this will happen.  So the "gathering of the elect," otherwise known as "the rapture," will not happen until after the great tribulation.  The “tribes of all the earth will mourn” because the nations’ leaders will be worshipping the anti-Christ and will be in submission to the Beast, and only the elect who know Jesus will be saved.  For this reason, all the tribes will mourn.  However, we who know Christ will rejoice at our liberation.  Keep in mind the word “elect,” because it will come in later in this article.

This one is a little more nuanced and involved:

And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.”’ But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’ And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests. “But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment.

 And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are called, but few are chosen.”

In the parable, the King is Father God, or Jehovah.  His son is Jesus Christ, and the wedding feast is the wedding of Christ to His church at the end of the age in the End Times, which will happen when He returns.  It’s called a wedding because we will be in complete unity with Christ, and we will all be “wed” to Him and live in God’s Kingdom forever. 

In this passage, it also says, “Many are called, few are ‘chosen.’" In order to explain the man with no wedding clothes, let’s go back to the word "elect” in the previous passage.  The words "elect" and "chosen" are the same word in the original Greek.  They are both Strong's Word #1588.  Many are called, few are chosen denotes that of those called, few make themselves ready by leaving their sin behind and clothing themselves in holiness to be chosen at the end of days.  Some will try to get in the wedding feast who did not clothe themselves in wedding garments and are still clothed in sin.  This denotes that the elect are not unconditionally predestined, but that they become elect by making themselves ready and putting on holiness, the wedding garment.  It is our choice to put on the right clothes or not.  We are not born in clothes, it is something we choose to wear or discard.  In this case, those who have chosen to put on their holiness (wedding garments) are chosen to participate in the supper of the Lamb.

In the Old Testament, there are many references to wearing “holy clothes,” and it is no mistake.  The priests all wore “holy vestments” when they served God (some references include Ezekiel 44:19, Exodus 40:13, and Leviticus 16:4).  We are a "nation of priests," so we must wear the garment of holiness as well! (Exodus 19:6).  I think the clearest verse showing the since we are priests, our garments must be holy is Exodus 29:19-21:

"Then you shall take part of the blood that is on the altar, and of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it on Aaron and his garments, and on his sons and his sons’ garments with him. He and his garments shall be holy, and his sons and his sons’ garments with him."

We are sons of Aaron, the priest, and we must wear the garment of holiness to be chosen for the wedding supper of the Lamb.  What is the garment of holiness that we put on?  Paul explains it briefly in Colossians 3:12-15: “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.  And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” 

We can only do this through prayer and intercession with the Holy Spirit.  We are called to be a nation of intercessors for each other.  What is intercession?  Praying, and thus watering your vine with the Holy Spirit so you may produce the fruit of love, joy, peace patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).  We water ourselves with prayer, and we will water the fertile grounds of this nation and this world with the Holy Spirit so that the end-time harvest may be realized.  It will happen, it’s just whether or not we choose to pray now or later that determines the timing.