These verses read: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days
shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and
the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be
shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and
then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the
Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
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.”
The signs mentioned in this passage are the signs that come at the very
end of time and accompany the coming of our Savior. In fact, in these
verses, the actual coming of the Lord is described and the final
salvation of God’s people.
The passage has some difficulties about it, difficulties that arise out
of the many events that take place at the end and that are not
mentioned here by our Lord. I refer to such events as the resurrection
from the dead and the final judgment by Christ of all men. This judgment
is described in detail in Matthew 25.
I will attempt therefore, to explain these verses in a way that seems
to me to be in agreement with other similar signs mentioned in other
places in Scripture.
The first thing to notice is that the text speaks of these signs as
“immediately after the tribulation of those days.”
We were told by the Lord that the tribulation or persecution of the
last days would be so severe that if God did not shorten the days, all
the elect would perish. That seems to suggest that although persecution
came close to destroying the entire church so that no saint lived any
more anywhere in the world, there was still here and there a saint to be
found whom the wicked had not killed.
This is also suggested by other passages of Scripture. For example, at
the conclusion of the parable of the insistent widow, Jesus said,
“Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the
earth?” (Luke 18:8). The answer to Jesus’ question is, “No, yet, yes.”
That is, it will be next to impossible to find a believer anywhere on
the earth. Yes, there will be a few, one here and one there.
Another passage is in Paul’s great and thrilling resurrection chapter, I
Corinthians 15. Paul is talking about the fact that for the believer to
go to heaven, he must be changed, for he cannot enter heaven in his
earthly body. It has to be made heavenly: incorruptible and immortal.
And so, Paul goes on to say, when Christ returns at the sound of a
trumpet, even those who are still on the earth will be changed (I Cor.
15:16-17). Paul himself says, “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all
be changed.” To sleep means here to die, as is often true in Scripture.
So we must picture these events in such a way that when our Lord
returns, there will be a few saints left on the earth who have not been
killed.
The next element we ought to notice is that the sign of the powers of
heaven shaken will be in connection with and at the same time as the
Lord’s return itself. There is, at this point, no more “chronology.” I
think this is very important to remember. It isn’t as if one thing
happens, then another thing, then, following that event, yet another
thing. It won’t be like that. Time as we know it shall cease to exist.
Let me try to explain that a little bit, although it is difficult, if
not impossible, to imagine how this is impossible, for we are creatures
who are bound in the chains of time.
The signs are these: the sun will shine no more; the moon will not give
light anymore; the stars will fall and the powers of heaven will be
shaken.
Evidently, these signs must be taken literally, although they are
described from our viewpoint here on earth. The same sign is described
in Revelation 6:12-14 and Revelation 16:3, 8-9. Revelation 6:12-14
speaks of the heavens being rolled back as a scroll. The idea seems to
be that all the heavenly bodies – stars, planets, solar systems,
galaxies, novae, black holes, gaseous clouds – are all held in place by
the “heavens.” The term “heavens” may refer to the firmament that God
created on the second day. But whatever it may mean, it is rolled up and
everything in the whole universe is in chaos: falling from their
places, colliding with each other, setting massive fires that destroy
the whole universe (II Peter 3:10-11). And from earth’s point of view,
the sun will become like the coagulated blood of a dead man, and the
moon will no longer reflect the light of the sun.
The text speaks of the powers of heaven. This may very well refer to
the forces that govern the movement of heavenly bodies that God has put
in his creation: the law of gravitation, for example.
But the point is that life on earth and time itself – all determined by
heavenly bodies – will be completely and dreadfully altered. This is
the reason why I said earlier that we cannot think of these last signs
as taking place in some chronological order. They happen together.
When these signs take place, God’s people will know that their Lord and Savior has come to deliver them.
It is good to close this article with the words of Peter: “Seeing then
that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of people ought ye
to be in all holy conversation (living) and godliness?” (II Peter
3:14).
The words of Elisha to his covetous servant, Gehazi, keep ringing in my
ears: “Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and
oliveyards, and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and manservants, and
maidservants?” (II Kings 5:26).
Prof. H. Hanko
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