MATTHEW XXIV | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 6, 1880

MATTHEW XXIV.

“THIS GENERATION.”

DIFFERENT views are taken of the Saviour’s words in Matt. 24: 34. “This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.” One is, that the generation means the race, or Jewish people. This we consider a forced construction. It seems to be as unnecessary as it is unnatural. And it leaves everything indefinite where every declaration of the context tends to infiniteness. It adds nothing whatever to the force of the general statement of the chapter.

Another is, that the individuals then present, or the generation living at that time, would continue till all these things were fulfilled. This has far more appearance of plausibility than the other theory. It might well be considered the truth were there no opposing considerations. But opposing considerations exist, which are not only weighty but, we think, insurmountable. This view is not necessary, because another and more reasonable one can be presented. The facts and reasons which we, in former articles, set forth, do render our conclusion necessary, namely: that the chapter speaks of a personal, literal, coming of the Saviour, which has not yet taken place. We have no idea that these facts will ever be met and these reasonings refuted.

Another view, which we hold to be the true one, is, that the language is prophetic, and uses the present for the future, as is common in the prophecies. Isaiah 9 speaks of the birth of Messiah as already having taken place, and chapter 53 in like manner speaks of his sufferings and death as being then in the past, more then a half a millennium before he appeared on earth. If these prophecies were treated as Universalists, and others of late years, treat Matt. 24, the evidence of the messiahship of Jesus would be entirely destroyed. Yet Matt. 24 is as certainly a prophecy as Isaiah 9 and 53.

Compare the language of our Saviour with that of Paul. Speaking to the Corinthian church he said, “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,” or translated, at the sound of the last trump. The pronoun “we” naturally refers to the speaker and those to whom he speaks. But the trumpet has not yet sounded, the resurrection has not yet come, the translation of the living righteous to immortality without their seeing death has not yet taken place, and Paul and the church of Corinth have all fallen asleep. But Paul’s brethren have not. Paul was speaking by prophecy as surely as was Isaiah in chapter 9, when he said, “Unto us a son is given.” When Isaiah uses language which refers so directly and unmistakably to those then living, as taken according to the natural application of the terms, why do all so readily apply it to a generation centuries then in the future? It is only because the facts compel us to recognize this usage in the prophecies. So the words of Paul can refer to only the last age of the church, to those of his brethren who shall be living when Christ comes, who shall be saved from death, and translated into the kingdom of God’s dear Son.

And so also in 1 Thess. 4: 13-18. Here he says: “We which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not go before those who are asleep.” He explains what he means by those who are asleep, for he says: “The dead in Christ shall rise.” Universalists uniformly refer the resurrection to a moral change, to a rising or passing from moral or spiritual death. But to speak of those who are morally or spiritually dead in Christ is to use language very strange and inappropriate. The Scriptures plainly teach that they who have fallen asleep in faith, who have died in Christ, shall have part in the first resurrection, which will take place when Christ comes.

Of Paul and his brethren in Thessalonica we can say as we said of those in Corinth,—they are not alive, they do not remain; “the day of the Lord has not yet come, for the “day of salvation” still continues; the voice of the archangel has not been heard; the saints have not risen from the dead, and the living saints have not been caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and worldlings and worldly-minded professors still cry, “Peace and safety.” As Paul spoke here also by the spirit of prophecy, to some of his brethren all these words will be fulfilled—not one word will fail.

And so of the words of the Saviour. Having carried the minds of the disciples forward to the signs in the sun, moon, and stars, he said, “When ye see all these things, know that he is near, even at the doors.” Will any one pretend that these things there referred to were then present? By no means. But do not these things refer to things in the presence of the speaker? Not necessarily. But “this generation” and “these things” belong together, for this generation shall see these things, see verse 34, though all were then in the future. And when these things are fulfilled, this generation—to which these things are present facts—will not pass till all be fulfilled, even to the coming of the Son of man. It is a solemn truth to contemplate, yet we firmly believe it is truth, that the signs have been fulfilled, and that the generation which saw the wonderful shower of falling stars in 1833, the last of the signs, will not pass away till the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven.