PMW 2026-062 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.
Matthew 24 is a well-known text that speaks of great prophetic judgments. Who has not heard of “wars and rumors of wars” (v. 6)? “False prophets” (v. 11)? “Enduring to the end” (v. 13)? “The abomination of desolation” (v. 15)? “Great tribulation” (v. 21)? “The powers of the heavens shaken” (v. 29)?
Unfortunately, for the most part, futurism controls the popular approach to Matthew 24 today. Futurists place all the events of Matthew 24:4ff thousands of years off from Jesus’s day and into our own approaching future. This is categorically wrong for various reasons that flow readily from the text itself. I am offering this running survey as a sample of a modern preterist exegesis. You will see many agreements with Grotius, but also some areas of disagreement. Preterism is not monolithic.
The most significant key for interpreting the Discourse is the Lord’s own express declaration in Matthew 24:34 regarding the timing of the “great tribulation” and other judgment events. In fact, this is a key fob that controls all things automatically. For that verse declares: “Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.” Here we have an authoritative, clear, and compelling pronouncement of the time of the events recorded in 24:4-33.
The Lord’s Dogmatism
Regarding this verse we should note, first, that Christ is dogmatic when he begins a statement with “truly” (Gk.: amen). Thus, Christ emphatically draws the disciples’s attention to what he is about to say — just as he does in 24:2, where he makes the statement about the destruction of the Temple that leads to the whole discourse: “Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.”
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Second, Christ further underscores his dogmatism. He does not simply tell them; he emphatically introduces what he is about to say with the declarative “I say to you.” The Lord does not leave the temporal expectation as a casual remark, hoping they will catch it. He alerts them to what he is about to say.
Third, the literal rendering of the Greek reads: “Truly I tell you that by no means passes away generation this until all these things happen.” The “by no means” is a strong, double negative (Gk., ou me); and it is put early in his statement for added emphasis. He is staking his credibility, as it were, on the absolute certainty of this prophetic pronouncement. He even positively contrasts the durability and integrity of his prophetic word here with that of the material universe: “Heaven and earth will pass away [!], but My words will not [ou me] pass away” (24:35).
But what does he so dogmatically and carefully declare? Whatever the difficult apocalyptic imagery in some of the verses preceding this dogmatic statement (e.g., vv. 29-31), Jesus clearly asserts that “all these things” will occur before “this generation” passes away.
The Lord’s Meaning
Actually a simple reading of 24:34 leaves the inescapable impression that these things are to occur in the generation of the original disciples to whom Jesus was speaking (Matt. 24:1-3). Contextual exegesis helps us to clarify the meaning of Matthew 24:34. The phrase “this generation” appears in the very context intimately related to and ultimately introducing Matthew 24. We can see this by simply comparing Matthew 23:36-38 with 24:1-2.
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In Matthew 23:36 “this generation” unquestionably speaks of Jesus’s contemporaries. Here Jesus is condemning his adversaries, the scribes and Pharisees (23:2, 13, 14, 14, 16, 23, 25, 26, 27, 29). He specifically observes that these his opponents will “fill up, then, the measure of the guilt” of their predecessors (23:32). They will do this by persecuting his followers (23:34), so that “upon you [scribes and Pharisees] may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed” (23:35). Then the Lord concludes: “Truly I say unto you, all these things will come upon this generation.” This employs some of the identical terms as Matthew 24:34, clearly functioning as its semantic equivalent:
Matthew 23:36: amen lego humin, hexei tauta panta epi ten genean tauten
Matthew 24:34: amen lego humin hoti ou me parelthe he genea aute heos an panta tauta genetai
So then, Jesus expressly teaches that the prophetic events of verses Matthew 24:4-31 [vv. 32-33 record a parable affirming the nearness of the event] — “all these things” (24:34) — will occur in “this generation.” And just forty years later the Jewish War with Rome brings the total and final destruction of the Temple (24:2). The temple’s destruction is a well-documented event occurring in AD 70 (see Josephus, Tacitus, and others of that era).
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