Matthew 24

MAT.24:2-3 “And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?”

The disciples may have thought when the temple was destroyed, that must be when you are coming back, and that is when the world is going to be destroyed. They did not realise that the temple was going to be destroyed only 40 years later by the Romans, and it would still be another couple of thousand of years before the end of the world.

MAT.24:4 “And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.” That is something you really need to be sure to understand, for there are a lot of preachers and Bible teachers who give all kinds of funny stories and explanations and interpretations of these things. You had better stick to the Bible. Stick to what Jesus says.

MAT.24:5-8 “For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.” We have had these things ever since Jesus was here, for the last 2000 years. He said they are only the beginning. It is only the beginning, just the beginning.

MAT.24:9-12 “Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.”

MAT.24:13 “But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.” That is a sign of your salvation if you endure until the end. It does not mean that if you make it to the end, then you are going to be saved. You are already saved. It means that if you are saved, you will stick it out; to the end. You are not going to go back on Jesus. You are not going to go back on the truth, the Word of God.

Now Jesus is going to give a very important prediction. They wanted to know, “What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” He says here in this 14th verse: “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.”

That is the first sign that Jesus himself gave that we are nearing the end. That is one of the signs of the end which has already occurred. The gospel has already been preached in all nations all over the world, if not directly by missionaries, certainly by radio and television and literature. Every nation on the face of the earth has today heard the gospel. Perhaps not every tribe and tongue and dialect and little tiny group, but every single nation on the face of the earth has now heard the gospel. And Jesus said, "...that this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, then shall the end come." He is now being even more specific about the exact end of things:

MAT.24:15 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) We have learned from the book of Daniel and the book of Revelation and many other places in the Bible, that the abomination of desolation is going to be an image, an idol of the antichrist. The antichrist tries to force the world to worship the idol, and in so doing, worship him. Jesus says here that "when ye see", when you see this idol, this image standing in the holy place, Mount Moriah, Jerusalem, when you see the antichrist image, raised up and standing there, then "whoso readeth, let him understand", you had better understand.

MAT.24:16-20 Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day:

If you happen to be in Israel at the time the abomination of desolation is placed, head for the mountains and don’t stop for anything. It is going to be hard if you have a baby to carry the baby, it is hard to run while you are carrying a baby. Hope and pray it does not happen in cold weather and you have to take off without your clothes, with nothing. Especially the people in Judaea, because that is where the worst will begin, right at the headquarters of the antichrist.

Why are these warnings given? MAT.24:21 “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.” This is the beginning of the Great Tribulation. The great tribulation begins exactly after the first three-and-a-half years of the antichrist reign. The last three-and-a-half years of his reign is the great tribulation. Can you know? Will you know? Of course you will know. You will probably be watching the placement of that image on television and hearing the antichrist's proclamation, given by the false prophet, his propaganda chief, for everybody to fall down and worship him and receive his mark in their right hand or forehead or be killed.

Jesus himself said, then begins the great tribulation. Right then, in the middle of the seven years of the antichrist's reign, at the beginning of the last three-and-a-half years of his reign is the great tribulation. Not all seven years are tribulation.

MAT.24:22 “And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.” Who are the elect? Here is a word which is again used, "for the elect's sake", Jesus says, "...those days shall be shortened". Paul makes it very plain who the elect are, the Christians. The word used here for the elect is the same word from the identical root that is used in "ecclesia", "the elect", the chosen or separated, the elect or "eclectos", the elect. The eclectos or the ecclesia of God. That means the elect or the church of God, all saved Christians.

Will the church still be here during the tribulation? It certainly will. Contrary to what many Bible prophecy teachers and false prophets and false Bible teachers have taught, and contrary to their soothsaying’s and their peace-prophesying, the church is still going to be here. They are going to have to go through the Great Tribulation. Daniel says so, Jesus said so here, John says so in the book of Revelation: the church, the Christians, the people of God are going to be here during the tribulation. It is very clear throughout the book of Daniel, and here in Jesus' own words, and finally in Revelation. "But for the elect's sake, those days shall be shortened.", otherwise, everybody would have died.

Jesus then mentions something to watch out for in that tribulation period. MAT.24:23-24 “Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.” Jesus says when they say I am here, "Jesus has come here, or he is over there," don't believe it. You know why? You are going to know it when Jesus comes. You are going to know it. The antichrist is even going to do great signs and wonders, so that his followers will believe a lie and be damned.

MAT.24:25-27 “Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” Jesus is going to come like lightning, shining even from the east unto the west.

Another sign: Verse 28 "For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together." He's saying it in cryptic, very puzzling language. Jesus is saying wherever the body is, there are those going to be that feed on Christ. And that is the best way you are going to know when Jesus comes, because you are going to be there. You are going to rise to meet him in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1Th.4:16-17.) “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

You will know when He comes because He will shine like lightning around the world and you will rise to meet Him in the air. You are going to be drawn like a magnet, like the eagles to the carcase, like us little vultures to the body, who have to eat and feed upon Christ to live spiritually. Wherever the carcase is, the body of Christ, there will all of us eagles be gathered together. That is how you will know when Jesus comes, you will be there.

MAT.24:29-31 “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. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”

That is when Jesus is going to come: after the tribulation. It says it clearly in that 29th verse. Immediately after the tribulation of those days. It says after the tribulation shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven. After the tribulation, then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn. After the tribulation they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. After the tribulation he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet and they shall gather together his elect. That is when Jesus is going to come back for his elect, to rapture his saints, and to gather them together, at the very end of the tribulation.

When Jesus comes, this world is going to know about it. The sky is going to light from one end to the other and Jesus is going to appear in the clouds of heaven in power and great glory. Suddenly we are all changed. All Christians dead or alive, wherever you are, will suddenly instantly be changed! Along with all the dead in the graves who are going to pop out of those graves and out of those tombs! No walls, no chests, no coffins, no caskets are going to be able to restrain them! (1CO.15:51-52 “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”) (1TH.4:16-17 “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.)

This is a beautiful picture of the coming of the Lord. Anything but a secret, anything but quiet. No secret rapture, no sudden disappearance of the saints. They are going to watch us go up into the sky to meet the Lord in the air in a glorious, well-lighted rapture! Nothing secret about it! A great triumph over our enemies, a great triumph over the demon forces of the devil and his antichrist and false prophet, right out of the tribulation. (REV.1:7 “Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him.”)

MAT.24:32-33 “Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.” He said just like you see the blossoms of the trees and the flowers and you know summer is nigh, then you will know that His coming is very near.

Every sign that appears, no matter how bad it may look to the world and how horrible it may seem to be, is another blossom. Every sign of the soon coming of Jesus is another flower. Every bit of news we read in the newspaper to show that the end is near, to us, it is good news. All these signs are flowers and blossoms and beautiful fulfillments of His prophecies and signs of His soon coming. the summer that is near, the beautiful summer, the springtime of the coming of Jesus and the springing up of his flowers from the earth, the dead in Christ that shall rise first, the resurrection!

MAT.24:34 “Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.” Jesus is not talking to his disciples, He is talking to us. He is not talking to them because they did not see all these things fulfilled. You, who are living in the endtime in these last days, this generation- your generation will not pass away till all these things are fulfilled!"

MAT.24:35 “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.”

MAT.24:36 “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.” He said, "knoweth no man." right then when he was speaking nobody knew, not even the angels knew then. That does not say that we in this generation now, in the end days, the last times, are not going to know at least the day, perhaps not the hour. Having told us exactly how long the tribulation is going to be from the setting up of the image of the antichrist, exactly 1260 days till the end when Jesus comes, I do not see how we can help but know the day. We will be counting the days through that horrible tribulation looking for the day of Jesus' coming. Of course, then when he made this statement he said, "of that day and hour knoweth no man," no man knew then. They did not have to know, they were not living in the last days!

MAT.24:37-39 “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.”

They didn't pay any attention to Noah’s message. They just went right on, business as usual, living as usual until the day that he entered into the ark. The time is going to be as wicked as the days of Noah when God was so angry with the world that He wiped them out with a flood of water. He is going to wipe a part of them out with a flood of judgements this time.

(An additional possibility some Bible scholars put forth concerning “as the days of Noe were” not mentioned in David Bergs teachings concerns gene manipulation and corruption of the human race as described in GEN.6:1-5 “And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

Courtesy David J. Smith and News Watch Magazine: “Jesus made a statement concerning His second coming in Matthew 24 that the masses in Christianity apparently have missed. He said that "as" in the days of Noah, so it would be in the last days signaling His return. Because of Satan's deception called evolution, the world looks upon the past as being primitive only.

However, this was not the case. Satan and his fallen angels do not want you or me to discover the truth concerning their past conduct! He had direct access to God's technology. He and 1/3rd of the angels that rebelled had knowledge far beyond the first parents - Adam and Eve.

A book that was not a part of the Bible but gives further insight into what happened before the flood is called The Book of Enoch. This book even names some of the "fallen angels" that descended in a planned physical, intervention into human affairs which God the Father and Jesus the Son had forbidden. Part of this rebellion is very briefly mentioned in Genesis 6:1-4.

In Genesis 6 we see "the sons of God" [which are angels in every reference in the Old Testament] crossing the sexual barrier and producing "giants" as offspring. God has forbidden the crossing genetically of different kinds. Angels were not to cross breed with human females. You can read the traditions handed down from ancient times in Greek Mythology. There is more truth to it than many think.

Not only did these "fallen angels," who came down in the days of Jared [Genesis 5:18], cross the forbidden sexual barrier, but they began to teach the human race witchcraft, sorcery, gene splicing, genetic engineering in order to combine two species - such as half man and half goat, half horse and half sheep, etc.

The human race knew that a savior was to come along with the kingdom of God. When these angels "left their first estate" [Jude 6] and descended to earth, the human family believed the kingdom of God was being established with "supernatural" beings in control. These angels and their half-human and half-angel offspring began to claim to be "gods" [Genesis 4:26].

They began to genetically alter the food supply. They taught humans to perform these alterations that was not compatible with human digestion. Therefore, they would eventually destroy the human race through which the "one seed" or Messiah was to come. It was very subtle, diabolical! The "fallen angels" had a two pronged front to destroy the Messiah before He was to be born. 1) Pollute the gene pool of human beings, so the Messiah would not have a PURE seed line from the human family; 2) Corrupt and destroy the human food chain, so the human race would become defective and infertile. Through the mind of Satan and his friends, they thought they could so corrupt the human race that the promise made to Adam and Eve of a Messiah coming through their physical, human seed would become impossible. The Messiah would eventually come as the Son of God and the Son of man because the Holy Spirit proceeded out from the Father and impregnated Mary - therefore human and Divine. The Word became flesh [John 1:1-3, 14].

God raised up Enoch to preach to these angels that had "left their first estate" concerning their fate and the coming kingdom of God [Jude 14-15 and The Book of Enoch]. Enoch and others did not have a "polluted" gene pool. God sent a vision to Noah's father that his son was to be different from others and have three sons who would save the world [Book of Enoch]. The Bible tells us why Noah came on this side of the flood with three sons and their wives. In Genesis 6:8-9 we are told that Noah "found grace in the eyes of the Lord. … Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God". 1)Noah obeyed God in all of His Laws. 2) God administered "grace" [unmerited favor] to Noah because of obedience to Him. 3) Noah's gene pool had not been corrupted by cross-breeding with "fallen angels." He was perfect in his pedigree - genetic makeup!

Satan is once again on the move in allowing men to learn cloning and gene splicing to corrupt the food chain. By producing corrupt food supplies that are fed to humans and animals that eventually become food for humans, they will again render mankind sickly. The inability to digest properly the genetically altered food will cause cancer growths in cattle, sheep, goats and humans.” David J. Smith is just one of several Bible teachers who espouse this idea also linking it with the UFO phenomenon and a possible “alien invasion”, really fallen angels, demonic spirits, of planet earth. Almondtree Productions)

MAT.24:40-41 “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.” If one is a believer, the Lord will take her up and leave the other one.

MAT.24:42 “Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.” You had better be ready. You need to be doing something that you know is pleasing to Him.

MAT.24:43-44 “But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.” Some are not expecting it; some are not prepared and ready.

MAT.24:45-47 “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his Lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.” He says you will be blessed when the Lord comes if he finds you are faithfully doing His work. He is going to make you then a ruler in his kingdom because you were faithful.

MAT.24:48-51 “But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My Lord delayeth his coming; And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; The Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Here Jesus himself is talking about an evil servant that says "my Lord", even calls God his Lord, Jesus his Lord, but is disobedient and mean to his fellowservants and eating and drinking with the drunken! He says, "the Lord of that servant shall come when he looks not for him"--when he is not expecting him, "and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: and there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

Is this man saved or not? Was he a servant or not? Was Christ his Lord or not? Jesus himself calls him a servant, but an evil servant. Jesus himself says the man says "Lord" to him. It does not say he sent him to hell. It does not say he sent him to damnation. It just says he is going to punish him for his unfaithfulness and his meanness and his disobedience. He is going to be cut asunder, probably going to have to suffer like some of the wicked are suffering at that time. "and appoint his portion with the hypocrites."

Did you know some people are going to be raised from the dead ashamed, to suffer everlasting shame and contempt? It is in the first few verses of the 12th chapter of Daniel. They are going to be raised, saved, yes, but in everlasting shame and contempt because they failed God and disobeyed God and did things which were evil in his sight.

So He appoints them their portion with the hypocrites, the pretenders, those who claimed to be more than they really were, those who claimed to be Christians, but certainly did not act like it; those who even claimed to be His servants, serving God, working for the Lord, doing his work, but not doing His will, not obeying, not doing it as He has told them to do it.

God bless you. Do what you can.

Taken from the informal talks of David Brandt Berg

Edited by Almondtree Productions