Time of the Fulfillment of Matt. xxiv by Dudley Marvin Canright

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 13, 1866

Time of the Fulfillment of Matt. xxiv.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

UnIVERSALISTS and many others claim that the whole of Matt. xxiv. was fulfilled at the destruction of Jerusalem, A. D. 70. In verses 29, 30, we read thus: "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."

Here are six events mentioned: 1. The darkening of the sun. 2. The darkening of the moon. 3. Falling of the stars. 4. The shaking of the powers of heaven. 5. The coming of Christ. 6. The wailing of the wicked. Mark xiii, 24-27, gives the same events in the same order; and so does Luke xxi, 25-27. The prophet Joel mentions the same events in the same order: "The sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining; and the Lord shall utter his voice before his army; for his camp is very great; for he is strong that executeth his word; for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?" Chap. ii, 10, 11. None can fail to see that these events are the same as those mentioned by Matthew, Mark, and Luke. In Rev. vi, 12-17, John enumerates the same events in the same order.

"And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heavens departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every freeman, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?"

We can readily see, and doubtless none will deny, that John here foretells the same scene which Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Joel describe. It was future in them all. Now does this apply to the destruction of Jerusalem? We answer, No; for Jerusalem was destroyed A. D. 70, and John wrote the Revelation A. D. 96, or twenty-six years after the overthrow of Jerusalem. These signs being then yet in the future, of course could not apply to the destruction of Jerusalem. This is a fact worthy of attention.

D. M. Canright.