And as He sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto Him and 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?

It may well be this is the most important question ever asked about the world, its people and what God will do next. For the whole theme of the Bible is the kingdom of God and Matthew 24 is all about how the kingdom will be brought in and what happens when it is.

The short, up front, answer to what the “end of the world” really means is that it doesn’t mean the end of the earth or its people, nor does it mean an end to the world as we know it. It means the “end of a certain age” but not the one we now live in. What’s more, it does not mean the end of God’s present “dispensation of grace and the mystery” (Ephesians 3 :1-4).

To back that up let me say that the margin note in my King James Bible instead of the “end of the world” says it should say “the consummation of the age”. And six other Bibles say the same.

Based on this it was a shock to me to learn that when his disciples showed the buildings of Herod’s magnificent temple to Him, and the Lord said, “There shall not be left one stone upon another” (Matthew 24:2) He was not referring to that structure’s destruction by a Roman army in 70AD.

No, He was foretelling the pulling down of Ezekiel’s yet to be built temple in the kingdom age yet to come (Ezekiel 40).  This “age” is when the Lord will rule from heaven and take over government of the world. Spelled out by the Apostle Paul as “the day of Christ” in his epistles, it is the “kingdom” that was prophesied by all the Old Testament prophets and the “kingdom” that Jesus made central in his gospel and teaching when He was on earth.

Despite unprecedented blessing being poured out this era will end in a break-out of rebellion -the “Great Tribulation”. Saints will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air as He descends to earth to restore kingdom order at his so-called “coming”, i.e. his Parousia. Therefore, for it to be held by some that Matthew 24:3 means the end of the earth and its unsaved people in fiery obliteration is a tragic misunderstanding of what the Lord was teaching.

The correct scenario becomes clear when the important words, coming, end, and world are given their proper meaning as understood by the Jewish people of that day and confirmed by biblical word scholars such as W.E. Vine, Strong, Thayer.

Thus, coming translates the Greek word is parousia which means personal and official “presence” and denotes the Lord Jesus’s arrival on earth from heaven and his staying to rule for a thousand years. Ancient currency in the form of “Parousia coins” was minted to mark the visit of a king or high official.

In Matthew 24:3 end doesn’t mean the final end of something, such as the last chapter of a book but the successful fruition of the purpose of a particular time. Your attention is invited to the fact that the Greek word sunteleia mistranslated “end” here, really means “consummation”. In other words, the “Day of Christ”, will result in the putting down of rebellion and usher in the Lord’s personally present rule on earth for a thousand years.

So, what does the word world mean in Matthew 24:3? The answer is that it means “age” not the “world “. The Greek word is aion from which in English we get aeon and eon, both meaning long periods of time.

Defining aion the authoritative Strong says New Testament Jews thought of aion as referring to the future Messianic kingdom. Thayer’s lexicon says the word “points to the consummate establishment of the Divine Kingdom”.

According to dispensational truth pioneer, Tom Ballinger, Matthew 24:3 should really read:

Tell us when these things shall be and shall be the sign of your Parousia, yes, even the consummation (sunteleia) of the (then and still future) Kingdom age (aion).

Importantly, the disciples did not ask, nor did Jesus speak of the “end” of the “Gospel” period, nor of the Acts Pentecostal manifestation Neither did He speak at all about the “Church which is his body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all” (Ephesians 1:22-23), nor about how the dispensation of the mystery (still operating in our time) will end. God is still rolling out his plan of the ages and the next big event on his calendar is his appearing (Titus 2:13 and 2 Timothy 4:1) when He will powerfully bring in his kingdom ruling from heaven. The “end of the world” relates to the end of that blessed era, not to our time.

John Dudley Aldworth

Email: johndaldworth42@gmail.com