PMW 2026-067 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

I am continuing a brief explanation for my working on a new book dealing with the two age doctrine of redemptive history. This is my third installment, I am only just now getting to my second reason. Why do I want to write a book on the two ages?

Second, my Olivet research. The second issue prompting this book on the two ages was my deep and abiding interest in the Lord’s Olivet Discourse (aka the Eschatological Discourse). I have been especially interested in the extended version found in Matthew’s Gospel to which I have given much attention. [1]

Jesus’ prophecy of the temple’s coming destruction (Matt. 24:2; cp. Mark 13:2; Luke 21:6) serves as the very impetus giving rise to his great Discourse which generates the disciples’ question regarding “the end of the age” (Matt. 24:3–4).

This Discourse is an extremely popular and important section of the New Testament revelation, being the Lord’s only fully eschatological discourse. Dispensationalists, for instance, derive many of their distinctive features from it. Thus, in their Popular Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy we read that it is “one of the most important prophetic passages in all the Bible.” Non-dispensational evangelical scholar David Wenham states that it is the “most important section of teaching about the future in the Synoptics” (NBD 856).

Olivet Discourse Made Easy (by Ken Gentry)

Verse-by-verse analysis of Christ’s teaching on Jerusalem’s destruction in Matt 24. Shows the great tribulation is past, having occurred in AD 70, and is distinct from the Second Advent at the end of history. Provides exegetical reasons for a transition from AD 70 to the Second Advent at Matthew 24:36.

See more study materials at: www.KennethGentry.com

Similarly, amillennial orthodox preterist Sam Storms notes that “there is hardly a more important section of Scripture on the subject of biblical eschatology than Matthew 24, the famous Olivet Discourse” (Storms 2013). Ekeocha (2024: 1) well notes that it “has always been the most critical and extensive starting point for reflections on Jesus’ eschatology.”

Furthermore, the unorthodox hyper-preterist movement, which is currently troubling a number of evangelical churches in America, also emphasizes Olivet’s significance. For instance, hyper-preterist J. Stuart Russell comments that it “is the great prophecy of the New Testament” and that it “is the great storehouse from which the prophetic statements of the apostles are chiefly derived.” (J. S. Russell 1887: 54)

Consequently, no book on biblical eschatology can overlook the Lord’s famous Discourse.

Jesus’ pronouncement regarding the Temple’s coming destruction results in the disciples’ confused inquiry (on this website I have written extensively of the disciples’ confusion regarding Christ’s teaching). Note their immediate two questions in response to his prophecy:

“As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, ‘Tell us, [1] when will these things happen, and [2] what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?’” (Matt. 24:3; cp. Mark 13:3–4; Luke 21:7).

And Jesus’ answer to them begins with a warning regarding the serious prospect of their confusion. This confusion could cause them to be dangerously misled by false Messiahs (Matt. 4:4–5). The vast majority of scholars view the disciples’ questions here being generating out of their confusion. [2]

Predestination Made Easy
(by Ken Gentry)
A thoroughly biblical, extremely practical, and impressively clear presentation of
the doctrine of absolute predestination.
See more study materials at: www.KennethGentry.com

As EDNT (1:45) explains by pointing to Matthew 24:3: “sunteleia (tou) aionos (Matt 13:39, etc. 28:20), end of the age, presupposes the two-aeon scheme.” The disciples’ reference to the “end of the age” necessarily implies at least two ages, since one age will end. And there must be another since we will live for eternity in the presence of God (a different age, the second age, the coming age).  Jesus often mentions the two age structure of redemptive history, e.g., Matt 12:32; 13:22; Mark 10:29–30; Luke 16:8; 20:34–35; Rom. 12:1–2; 1 Cor. 1:20; 2:6–8; 3:18; 2 Cor. 4:4; Gal. 1:4; Eph. 1:21; Heb. 2:5; 6:5.

NOTES

1. See my books: He Shall Have Dominion: A Postmillennial Eschatology (2009), 269–62; Perilous Times: A Study in Eschatological Evil (1999), chs. 2–3; The Olivet Discourse Made Easy (2010); and Thomas D. Ice and Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr., The Great Tribulation: Past or Future? (1999). See also my video lectures: Understanding the Olivet Discourse and debate video Matthew 24: Past or Future (with Thomas D. Ice).

2. See Matthew commentaries dealing with Matthew 24 by: John Calvin; John Gill; Thomas Scott; Henry Alford; H. A. W. Meyer; John Broadus; R. V. G. Tasker; Harold Fowler’ David Turner; Michael Wilkins; Craig Blomberg; Craig Keener; William Hendriksen; Ed Glasscock; R. T. France; Charles Quarles; Leon Morris; Donald Hagner. See also commentaries on Mark 13 and Luke 21 by: J. A. Alexander and J. Norval Geldenhuys, as well as comments on the relevant verses in Ladd (1974b: 196–97); Keith Mathison (2009: 372–73); Sam Storms (2013: 233, 236–37); R. L. Reymond 1998: 1006; R. Letham 2019): 831.