Signs of the Times (34)

I shall make a few remarks in this article on Matthew 24:36-41. The text reads: “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, not, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.  But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.”

 

In a way, these are strange verses, and many have taken them up wrongly and have made some serious mistakes that have deceived the children of God.

 

One such error is to take verse thirty-eight wrongly, interpreting it to mean that we must give up, insofar as possible, eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, and other normal aspects of our calling here in the world when we know Christ’s coming is near. This was, for example, the error of the members of the church in Thessalonica. The congregation thought that Christ would come any moment, and so some of them even quit their jobs and began to stick their noses into other people’s business. Paul addresses himself to that problem in 2 Thessalonians 3:10-15. But people have frequently appeared in the church with the same error. I mentioned in my last forum article that Harold Camping did the same thing. I would not want any of you to do any such wrong thing. Earlier in that article, I told you of an incident with my father in which he told us that we should keep on doing what we were doing, even if we knew that Christ was coming back that same day.

 

Others, appealing especially to verses 40 and 41, claim they find in these verses proof for the rapture, and, in a way, especially if one disregards the context, it sounds that way: two people together: one taken and the other left.

 

Both groups of people do not put these verses in the context of the rest of the chapter, nor in the context of what Jesus is teaching here. We must remember that Jesus’ coming is after the great tribulation in which God’s people will be forced to flee. They will hardly be doing the things described in the text: eating and drinking, etc. Persecution will be so intense that there will hardly be any elect on the earth when Christ comes. In the parable of the importunate widow, Jesus concludes the parable by saying, “Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8). When the flood came (and Jesus compares the days before His coming to the days of Noah), there were only eight people in church – Noah and his family. Persecution was terrible. And if God’s people are forced to flee, they will not be eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, and grinding at the mill.

 

In these verses Jesus is once again reminding us how important it is to “Watch and pray” for Christ’s coming. He underscores our need to hear and obey His admonition by contrasting our life with the lives of the wicked who deny His coming.

 

The world denies Christ’s coming. Read 2 Peter 3:1-4. The wicked are devoted to their accursed error of evolutionism, and that heresy has no room for a second coming of Christ. Many wicked men believe that the world will be destroyed, but not by Christ’s coming, but by man himself destroying his own world.

 

Yet strangely enough, while they deny the Lord’s coming, they really, deep down in their hearts, know it is true. Once, when I was a child, we saw the most spectacular display of northern lights that I have not seen anything like it since. The next day the news told us that police stations, newspaper offices and government officials were flooded with telephone calls made by terrified people who thought the end of the world had come.

 

The wicked do not want the coming of Christ. They do not want Christ to come because Christ comes as Judge to judge them and all their wicked deeds. They are so frightened by Christ’s coming, and so terrified at the thought, that they deny His coming.

 

And so they live as if Christ’s coming is not going to happen. For the wicked, each day is life as usual. The beginning and end of a day, the cycle of a week, the passing of the months and the years – it is all so normal. “All things continue as they were from the beginning.” They go about their business as if the world will go on, and on, and on. . . . They marry and are given in marriage, and they go about their daily work as if things are always going to be the same.

 

That is the way it was in Noah’s day. For 110 years they watched Noah build his ark. For 110 years they mocked and jeered. “All things continue as they were.” “How crazy can a man get.” “Noah talks about rain; no one has ever seen rain. He talks like a fool.” “Who in his right mind builds an ark on dry ground, far from the ocean?” “Why does he build a monster boat for 8 people?” “Let’s get back to our usual life; nothing is going to happen anyway.” But the flood came and swept them all away.

 

When I was in the early grades of my schooling and heard my teachers tell us the story of the flood they pictured it as if the water of the heavy rain gradually made the water rise inch by inch. The higher it rose, the more frantically did the people and the animals climb to higher and higher ground to escape the rising waters.

 

But it wasn’t that way at all. Suddenly the windows of heaven burst and it was not a heavy rain, but an ocean being suddenly dumped on the earth. And the fountains of water underground burst up into the surface. There were volcanos, earthquakes, tsunamis, crashing waters that tore the earth apart and created mountains and continents. Most people did not even know what hit them. God’s fury came in a huge burst of judgment that changed the entire earthly creation and destroyed everything in the old one.

 

Jesus means to say that the child of God does not live as if it is “business as usual.” They know, as Noah knew, that judgment is coming and that this earth is going to be destroyed in an explosion of unprecedented horror. And they live accordingly. It is not business as usual. Christ is coming! That is an event so crucial that it determines how we live in every part of our life.

 

We may not conclude from all this that we are not to eat and drink, marry and give in marriage, nor go about our daily tasks the Lord lays on us. That is not the point of contrast between faithful Noah and his family on the one hand, and the wicked world on the other hand. We too are called to do all these things as long as we can -- given persecution, apostasy and the decline of the church.

 

It is in this light that we must also understand verses 40 and 41. Jesus means to say that God’s people as well as the wicked live in this world, working in the field and preparing meals. The difference is not in these daily and necessary duties. The difference lies in their reason for doing what they do. It is a difference in motive. God’s people look eagerly for Christ’s coming, and perform their daily tasks in the longing for that day. They are praying in their hearts, “Come, Lord Jesus: Come quickly.” The wicked are scared of that coming. And they really are saying, “Lord, don’t come. We do not want this world to end.”

But we are to do our work, not with the motive of “business as usual,” but watching and praying. It is not my purpose to spell this “watching and praying” out in detail. Scripture describes this kind of life in different ways. It describes this kind of life as the life of a spiritual pilgrim and stranger. It speaks of seeking and minding those things that are above, and not things on the earth (Col. 1:1-3).

 

Some might say (and many do say), “Well, I do not have to worry too much about it all for a long while. Christ is not going to come back to bring His church to glory for a long time. Many other things have to happen first. I’ll put this all on the back burner for a while. I can always get at it later. Now I am really too busy with my schooling and my work to give this much thought. I’ll just carry on with “business as usual.”

 

You may be right. The end of the world may not come yet for a number of years. BUT WHAT IF CHRIST COMES NOW! FOR YOU! BEFORE YOU GO TO BED TONIGHT! That coming of Christ is also part of the end of the world – for you! Is it then business as usual?

 

You do not know; nor do I, when Christ is coming. It is a good thing God does not tell us when Christ shall come to take us to heaven. But to watch and pray is necessary now. Christ is coming! Let us rejoice and be glad.

Prof. Herman Hanko