“But 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 the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.” – Matthew 24:29

The final phrase of verse 29 says, ” the powers of the heavens will be shaken.” Is this phrase to be taken literally, like the three previous phrases, or should one apply speculative exegesis to say that it means something other than what it says? Do powers of the heavens refer to angelic entities or to the physical universe?

Powers of The Heavens

The same basic phrase is used in all three accounts of the Olivet Discourse (Matt. 244:29; Mark 13:25; Luke 21:26). The phrase ” powers of the heavens” most likely has the idea of ” the sun, moon, and stars, spoken of in summary fashion,” as they have been specifically mentioned earlier in the verse. Leon Morris says, ” The word for heaven is singular in the reference to the stars, but plural where the powers are spoken of.” [1] ” Thus the Lord describes the astronomical bodies being shaken as the earth is in an earthquake.” [2] The specific phrase ” powers of the heavens” is never used of angelic beings in the Bible,[3] nor does the context support such an understanding. Since the first three phrases relate to the entities that fill the sky, this final expression is a summary of the collective. ” Jesus is saying that, whatever the powers of the heavens may be, they are subject to God, and that at this time, that of the return of the Son of man to this earth, their power will be disturbed.” [4]These ” powers of the heavens” also appear to include God’ s decree of stability by which these celestial objects currently function with regularity. John MacArthur explains:

All the forces of energy, here called powers of the heavens, which hold everything in space constant, will be in dysfunction. The heavenly bodies will careen helter-skelter through space, and all navigation, whether stellar, solar, magnetic, gyroscopic, will be futile because all stable reference points and uniform natural forces will have ceased to exist or else become unreliable.[5]

A Heavenly Shaking

The verb ” shaken” is used about 15 times in the Greek New Testament. The verb is sometimes used as a metaphor, as in 2 Thessalonians 2:2: ” that you may not be quickly shaken from your composure.” However, most of the time it refers to a physical shaking, as in Acts 16:26: ” suddenly there came a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison house were shaken.” A physical shaking of the heavens is what our Lord intends in this context.

Preterists, like Ken Gentry, however, believe that this phrase does not reference a physical shaking. Gentry says the following:

Consequently, we may legitimately apply Matthew 24:29 to the destruction of Jerusalem in a.d. 70. Christ draws upon this imagery from Old Testament judgment passages that sound as if they are world-ending events. And in a sense it is ” the end of the world” for those nations God judges. So it is with Israel in a.d. 70.[6]

Most commentators recognize that the shaking of the heavens in this passage is an allusion from Haggai 2:6 which says, ” For thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘ Once more in a little while, I am going to shake the heavens and the earth, the sea also and the dry land.’ ” What does this passage mean? We have a divine New Testament commentary that we can look to in Hebrews 12 that tells us what it means.

And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, ” Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven.” And this expression, ” Yet once more,” denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, in order that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe (Heb. 12:26- 28).

In this fifth warning passage, the writer of Hebrews contrasts the first shaking of the earth, a physical one, at the Exodus with a future shaking, which will include the heavens as well. He too has in mind Haggai 2:6. The future shaking will be much greater than the past shaking since it will include the heavens as well. Since the first shaking at the Exodus was physical then it follows that the second shaking will also be a physical one, just as Christ describes in His prophetic sermon of Matthew 24. ” The discourse is entirely plan,” notes amillennial interpreter R. C. H. Lenski, who understands this as a future physical event. ” The whole sidereal world shall collapse. . . . This is made plain by the last ‘ the powers of the heavens shall be shaken’ or dislocated. All that hold the heavenly bodies in their orbits and enables sun and moon to light the earth will give way.” [7] ” This convulsion in the heavens, previous to the Messiah’ s descent therefrom, is not as yet to be regarded as the end of the world, but only as a prelude to it,” notes H. A. W. Meyer. ” The earth is not destroyed as yet by the celestial commotion.” [8]

Signs in The Heavens

Matthew and Mark do not record Christ’ s statements about the human response to these great events, but Luke does. William Kelly says, ” It is Luke only who mentions the moral signs of men’ s anguish spite of the deceits and pretensions of that day.” [9] In what is clearly the same context that we find in Matthew and Mark, Jesus says:

” And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and upon the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken” (Luke 21:25- 26).

Luke is the only one to call the activity in the sky involving the sun, moon and stars a sign. Robert Stein says, ” the signs associated with the Son of Man’ s coming are cosmic, whereas those associated with Jerusalem’ s fall are terrestrial, so that Luke kept these two events distinct.” [10]

One of the purposes to which God gave in His creation of the sun, moon, and stars would be for ” them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years” (Gen. 1:14b). Who would these signs be for? They will be signs to those upon the earth. When one ponders great events down through history, in no other event would signs in the heavens be so appropriate than for the second coming of Christ from heaven to earth.

Luke’ s Account

Clearly, Luke 21:20- 24 refers to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in a.d. 70. The second half of verse 24 says, ” and Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” Equally clear is that the last half of verse 24 is descriptive of a period of time that commenced after the Roman vanquishing of Jerusalem in the first century. That phrase has a beginning point, which began after a.d. 70. It has a time interval described by the expression, ” Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles.” That verse also provides an ending point when it says, ” until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” There is no way that this event has already been fulfilled and it looks to a time when events that took place in a.d. 70 will be reversed.

Verse 24b provides a textual transition from a.d. 70 to events just before the second coming of Christ. Even a renowned preterist such as F. W. Farrar recognizes the shift from a.d. 70 in verses 20- 24 to the second advent, or what he calls ” the Last Coming” in verses 25- 28.[11] E. H. Plumptre tells us the following:

From this point onwards the prophecy takes a wider range, and passes beyond the narrow limits of the destruction of Jerusalem to the final coming of the Son of Man, and the one is represented in St. Matthew as following ” immediately” on the other, by St. Mark as ” in those days.” No other meaning could have been found in the words when they were first heard or read.[12]

At this point in Luke 21 we have an example of what Tim LaHaye and I call ” The Mountain Peaks of Prophecy” in our book Charting The End Times.[13]Plumptre has provided an excellent explanation of this in the following statement:

As men gazing from a distance see the glittering heights of two snow-crowned mountains apparently in close proximity, and take no account of the vast tract, it may be of very many miles, which lies between them; so it was that those whose thoughts must have been mainly moulded on this prediction, the Apostles and their immediate disciples, though they were too conscious of their ignorance of ” the times and the seasons” to fix the day or year, lived and died in the expectation that it was not far off, and that they might, by prayer and acts, hasten its coming (2 Pet. iii. 12).[14]

Clearly, in Luke 21, Christ sees two different events. One in the first century (21:20- 24) and the other, still future to our time (21:25- 28). However, neither Matthew 24 nor Mark 13 relate in any way at all with the a.d. 70 event, since neither the destruction of the Temple or Jerusalem is mentioned in them. Instead, the Matthew and Mark account of the Olivet discourse clearly speak of the rescue of the Jewish people, rather than their judgment as happened in a.d. 70. Most preterists do not even deal with this issue, let alone provide a satisfactory answer to that problem.

In summary, we have seen that great supernatural events will accompany Christ’ s return to planet earth. Is that so hard to imagine or believe? Apparently for some it is. Nevertheless, Scripture (both in the Old and New Testaments) speaks of Israel being regathered in her land, in unbelief (her current status today), as a national entity. She will go through a time called the tribulation that will lead to the conversion of the remnant to faith in the Messiahship of Jesus. This will then precipitate the second coming of Christ for the purpose of rescuing a now converted nation, who calls for His protection against the armies of all the nations that have gathered in Israel to wipe her out. Instead, Christ destroys Israel’ s enemies and commences His reign in Jerusalem for a thousand years. That is what the Bible says. Since it teaches this, all Bible-believing Christians should say ” amen.” Maranatha!

(To Be Continued . . .)

 

Endnotes
[1] Leon Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992).

[2] Stanley D. Toussaint, Behold the King: A Study of Matthew (Portland, OR: Multnomah, 1980).

[3] Contrary to Robert Govett, The Prophecy on Olivet (Miami Springs, FL: Conley & Schoettle, 1881).

[4] Morris, Matthew, pp. 609-10. For further reasons not to take this a an angelic reference see Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer, Critical and Exegetical Handbook to the Gospel of Matthew, 2 vols. (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1879).

[5] John MacArthur, Matthew 24- 28, The Macarthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago: Moody, 1989).

[6] Kenneth L. Gentry in Thomas Ice and Kenneth L. Gentry, The Great Tribulation: Past or Future? (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1999).

[7] R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. Matthew’s Gospel (Columbus, OH: The Wartburg Press, 1943),p. 947.

[8] Meyer, Matthew, vol. 2, p. 149.

[9] William Kelly, An Exposition of the Gospel of Luke (Oak Park, IL: Bible Truth Publishers, 1971).

[10] Robert H. Stein, Luke, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1992).

[11] F. W. Farrar, The Gospel According to St. Luke, with Maps, Notes and Introduction (Cambridge: At The University Press, 1899).

[12] E. H. Plumptre, The Gospel According to St. Luke, 12 vols., vol. 3, Ellicott’s New Testament Commentary (London: Cassell & Company, n. d.).

[13] Tim LaHaye and Thomas Ice, Charting the End Times: A Visual Guide to Understanding Bible Prophecy (Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 2001).

[14] Plumptre, Luke, p. 345.

“But 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 the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.” – Matthew 24:29

I have noted that this passage contains four descriptive phrases. First, the darkening of the sun; second, the moon not reflecting its light; third, stars falling from the sky; fourth, a shaking of heaven powers. Previously we dealt with the darkening of the sun and saw that both Jesus and Isaiah (Isa. 13:10) intended their readers to understand that these were physical events, not symbolism denoting a non-physical event.

Hebrew Poetry

All too often opponents of literal interpretation will equate a biblical use of poetic structure with non-literal interpretation. This is an improper belief.

I recall that during my college days, I took a class in the Minor Prophets. When we got to the book of Jonah my liberal professor said because the style of chapter two was poetic it meant that the events depicted there should not be taken literally. Jonah 2 records the episode of Jonah and the great fish. Such nonsense is clearly wrong when compared with Scripture itself. There are many historical events, both past and future, that are recorded in the Bible using some kind of Hebrew poetic form. Many historical events are contained in the Psalms. Yet, every Psalm is written using Hebrew poetry. Even within American history some of our greatest literature uses poetic expression to communicate historical events. One need only think of literature such as The Midnight Rides of Paul Revere, or Captain, My Captain. The Hebrew poetic genre can often be more expressive or colorful than prose narrative, but this does not mean that it cannot be historical. Did not the Song of Deborah (Ex. 19) mention historical events that had just taken place in the Exodus, even though it is in a poetic form? Just because Isaiah 13 and many prophetic passages on the Day of the Lord are put found to be within a poetic form, does not mean that they do not speak of literal historical events.

No Moonlight

Christ says in His discourse, that in conjunction with the sun not shinning, ” the moon will not give its light.” This makes good physical sense that if the sun has been darkened, that the moon will not shine, since the moon does not generate its own light, as does the sun, but it simply reflects the light of the sun. Since the sun has been darkened, then this would mean in a physical cause and effect that the moon would also be darkened. This fact argues for a literal intent by Jesus in Matthew 24:29. Robert Govett is on the mark when he says, ” no proof is needed on the part of those who take them literally: reason must first be shown why we are to take them symbolically, before we need give any proof of the contrary.” [1] Another suggests that the description should be taken literally because, ” Elsewhere in chapter 24 the dramatic events- wars, famines, earthquakes- are intended literally.” [2]

The basic approach and arguments that were used to demonstrate that Christ’ s previous reference to the sun is of a physical nature are also applied to His use of moon in this context. Since sun and moon are linked together, as are all four of these descriptive phrases, if the sun is literal then so must be the moon. Leon Morris tells us:

There is to be no source of light here on earth in that day. It accords with what will happen to sun, moon, and stars that the powers of the heavens will be shaken. . . . Whatever functions they may be exercising at the time will be affected by the great fact that the Son of man is coming back to this earth to bring an end to the current system and to inaugurate the reign of God over all the earth.[3]

Star Power

The third of four descriptions that will take place ” immediately after the tribulation of those days” will be ” the stars will fall from the sky.” These events are all in preparation for the second coming that is described in verse 30. A heavenly blackout that will provide a perfect background for the brilliant arrival of Jesus Christ back to planet earth to set up His thousand year rule.

Preterists, such as Gary DeMar, do not think that this passage describes the backdrop for Christ’ s bodily return to Jerusalem. ” When the tribulation of ‘ those days’ is completed, the end of the temple and city is near,” claims DeMar. ” As the time for Jerusalem’ s judgment draws ever closer, certain other signs would appear. These later signs are descriptive of the fall of the nations and kingdoms.” [4] Concerning the stars in this passage, DeMar believes that they ” represent people and nations. The people of Israel were represented as stars (Gen. 22:17; 26:4; Deut. 1:10).” [5] Once again, does Christ intend a literal or figurative event. Even if it a figure of speech, which I do not think it is, it would not necessarily follow that DeMar’ s understanding would be correct. Theoretically, stars could be used figuratively and still relate to the second advent. Why should this descriptive phrase also be taken literally, as have the sun and moon?

Stars Falling to The Earth

The text says, ” the stars will fall from the sky.” It does not say in this passage that stars will fall to the earth. Yet, that is how DeMar attempts to finesse the passage by trying to connect it with Revelation 6:13, which says, ” and the stars of the sky fell to the earth.” ” How can stars fall to the Earth and the Earth survive,” [6] asks DeMar?

First, aster, the Greek word for star, can refer to physical stars in the sky (Mat. 2:2, 7, 9- 10) or it can be used figuratively as a symbol, referring to people and angels (Jude 13, Rev. 8:10- 11; 9:1). Second, stars literally do fall from heaven upon the earth. They are called ” falling stars,” ” shooting stars,” ” comets,” or ” meteors.” The Greek word for star can be used in this way.[7] ” The word ‘ star’ (Greek aster) refers to any luminous body in the sky other than sun and moon.” [8] Stars that fall to the earth often disintegrate and burn up as they enter the earth’s atmosphere. Robert Gundry has said, ” The falling of the stars refers to a shower of meteorites.” [9]

A number of commentators see the falling stars as meteorites. Greek scholar, Kenneth Wuest translates Revelation 6:13 as follows: ” the meteors of the heaven fell to the earth.” [10] Grant Osborne says, ” The background is a huge meteor shower.” [11] In reference to the meaning of star, Robert Thomas says, ” Its meaning is broad enough to include smaller objects that hurtle through space from time to time. . . . a very large meteor shower that invades the terrestrial atmosphere.” [12] Kendell Easley declares, ” we speak of ‘ falling stars’ or ‘ shooting star’ emanating from a meteor shower.” [13] ” The most likely identification of these particular falling stars is that of a great swarm of asteroids that pummel the earth,” says Henry Morris.[14]

Further, the description of the falling stars to the earth in Revelation 6:13 is not a complete emptying of the heavens of all of their stellar components. It is a partial event as supported by the part of verse 13 that says, ” as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind.” Robert Govett explains as follows:

Not all of them are cast down; as the comparison appears to prove. For their fall is like that of the untimely figs of a fig-tree, much shaken by a gale. The fruit intended is the winter-fig, that comes out too late in the summer to ripen, and loses its hold of the tree during the inclement skies of the end of the year; so as to be easily shaken off by any wind, which agitates to any considerable extent the branches of the tree.[15]

Falling stars are what cause the people of the earth to hide in caves in Revelation 6:12-17.

The six seal judgment, which is being described this passage, is not a parallel passage to Matthew 24:29, even though there are some similar phrases in both passages. The context is totally different. The six seal judgment describes a partial judgment, which does not include the second coming. Matthew 24:29 describes a complete blackout of the sun, moon, and stars, followed by the second coming. Even though DeMar tries to equate these passages,[16] there are too many differences to justify such an understanding. Revelation 6:13 is the only passage which teaches that stars will fall upon the earth. The other passages referencing literal stars, which includes Matthew 24:29 and Mark 13:24, simply say that the stars will fall from the sky, not to the earth. Thus, it is in this way that the sixth seal judgment will be fulfilled literally.

Revelation 12

DeMar also indicates that Revelation 12:4 is a passage that we believe refers to literal stars. It says of the great red dragon (Satan), ” And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven.” ” Again, ‘ a third of the meteorites of heaven’ would have a devastating effect on our planet. Earth would cease to exist,” DeMar declares. ” Scientists have speculated that a single meteorite threw up enough debris upon impact with Earth that it ‘ ended the reign of the dinosaurs.’ ” [17]

It is not surprising that DeMar uses an evolutionary hypothesis to defend his naturalistic interpretation. Nevertheless, we literalists do not believe that physical stars are in view in verse 4. I have already noted above that the word star can be used to refer to the physical stars in the sky or as a symbol referring to a personality. DeMar hides from his readers what is said a few verses later: ” And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him” (Rev. 12:9). Revelation 12:4 uses ” stars” as a symbol for angels (as in Job 38:7), in this case fallen angels, because verse 9 repeats what is said in verse 4 using the non-symbolic term ” angels.” Robert Thomas notes:

The stars must refer to angels who fell with Satan in history past. The similarity of this verse to Dan. 8:10, where ” the host of heaven” is an apparent reference to angels, shows this. Already in Revelation a star has pictured an angel (9:1). That factor along with the reference to Satan’ s angels in 12:8- 9 adds credence to this explanation.[18]

Apparently DeMar must obfuscate and misrepresent the views of others in order to make his own appear to have some merit. Maranatha!

(To Be Continued . . .)

 

Endnotes
[1] Robert Govett, The Prophecy on Olivet (Miami Springs, FL: Conley & Schoettle Publishing Co., [1881] 1985), p. 64.

[2] W. D. Davies and Dale C. Allison, Jr., A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on The Gospel According to Saint Matthew, 3 vols. (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1997), vol. 3, p. 358, f.n. 200.

[3] Leon Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992), pp. 609- 10.

[4] Gary DeMar, Last Days Madness: Obsession of the Modern Church (Powder Springs, GA: American Vision, 1999), p. 142.

[5] DeMar, Last Days Madness, p. 143.

[6] DeMar, Last Days Madness, p. 142.

[7] Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon (Oxford England: Oxford Press, 1968), s.v. ” aster” , p. 261.

[8] Henry Me. Morris, The Revelation Record (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1983), p. 122.

[9] Robert H. Gundry, Matthew: A Commentary on His Handbook for a Mixed Church under Persecution, second edition, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994), p. 487.

[10] Kenneth S. Wuest, The New Testament: An Expanded Translation (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1961), p.597.

[11] Grant R. Osborne, Revelation (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002), p. 292.

[12] Robert L. Thomas, Revelation 1- 7: An Exegetical Commentary (Chicago: Moody, 1992), p.454.

[13] Kendell H. Easley, Revelation (Nashville: Holman Reference, 1998), p. 111.

[14] Morris, Revelation Record, p. 122.

[15] Robert Govett, Govett on Revelation, 2 vols. (Hayesville, NC: Schoettle Publishing, [1861] 1981), vol. I, p. 216.

[16] DeMar, Last Days Madness, pp. 142-43.

[17] DeMar, Last Days Madness, p. 143.

[18] Robert Thomas, Revelation 8- 22: An Exegetical Commentary (Chicago: Moody, 1995), p. 124.