End Times Meaning: What Time Is It?

Jerusalem Surrounded by Armies Was the Sign

Luke 21 gives the disciples a sign they could recognize. Jesus says that when they saw Jerusalem surrounded by armies, its desolation had come near. Those in Judea were to flee. Those inside the city were to get out. He calls them “days of vengeance” and says they would fulfill all that is written.

That statement matters. Jesus does not describe Jerusalem’s destruction as an accidental Roman interruption of God’s plan. He places it inside the fulfillment of prophecy.

But to understand why Jerusalem and the Temple matter so much, we first have to know what time the New Testament writers said they were living in.

The Temple marked the age

The New Covenant began at the cross through the blood of Jesus. But the New Covenant age had not yet been fully established while the old Temple order was still standing. The New Covenant had begun, but the old covenant age had not yet reached its historical end.

That means the first Christians lived through a transitional period. They belonged to Christ and had entered the New Covenant, yet they still lived in the closing years of the old covenant age.

Hebrews 9:6–10 gives us the marker. The writer says that as long as the first section was still standing, the way into the holy places had not yet been opened in the sense he was describing. Then he says that first section was “symbolic for the present age.” The regulations connected with that order were imposed “until the time of reformation.”

Do not rush past that.

The Temple was still standing, and Hebrews says that standing Temple was symbolic of their present age. So what age were they living in when Hebrews was written?

The old covenant age.

And when would the time of reformation be reached according to the picture Hebrews gives us? When the order represented by that standing Temple reached its end.

The Temple marked the age.

That is why Hebrews 8:13 can say the first covenant had become obsolete, was growing old, and was “ready to vanish away.” It was obsolete because Christ had already accomplished what the old order could never accomplish. Yet it was still ready to vanish because the Temple system connected with that age was still operating.

Once that distinction is clear, a lot of passages stop fighting each other. Christians were no longer under the Law for righteousness, yet the Temple order still operated around them. They belonged to Christ while living through the closing years of the old covenant age.

They were living in a transitional period of time. One age was ending while another was being established.

How could Christians live in the old covenant age and not be under the Law?

That is the obvious question, and I think it probably confused many Jewish Christians as well.

Jesus gives us the key in Matthew 5:17–18. He said He did not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets but to fulfill them. He also said that not one iota or dot would pass from the Law until all was accomplished and heaven and earth passed away.

The Law had reached its goal in Christ. Sin had been fully dealt with for those in Him. Christians were not looking to the Law for righteousness. But the Law was still being observed in the synagogue, sacrifices were still being offered, and the Temple still stood.

That is exactly the tension Hebrews describes. The first covenant was obsolete, but it was still “ready to vanish away.”

Scripture never tells us that this useless and fading Temple order would vanish and then return later for another attempt. The direction is the opposite. The first was growing old. It was ready to disappear. Christ had brought something better.

I develop that covenant foundation more fully in What Is the New Covenant?.

Heaven and earth explains what was passing away

Now we come to the part that causes so much confusion.

Jesus said heaven and earth would pass away. Yet the physical earth is still here. So was the destruction of Jerusalem just a coincidence? Did Rome destroy the Temple while prophecy was really talking about something completely different thousands of years later?

Luke 21 will not let us make that move easily. Jesus says Jerusalem would be surrounded by armies, calls those days the days of vengeance, and says they would fulfill all that is written.

So how can Jerusalem’s destruction fulfill what was written if the prophetic language sounds like the end of heaven and earth?

Isaiah 51:15–16 shows us how the prophets used that language. The Lord speaks of establishing the heavens and laying the foundations of the earth, and then says to Zion, “You are my people.”

Were the literal heavens created at that moment? Were the physical foundations of the planet laid when Zion became His people?

Of course not.

Isaiah is using creation language to describe Yahweh establishing Israel as His covenant people. Israel’s covenant world could be described in the language of heaven and earth.

Now turn the picture around.

If the prophets could describe the establishment of that covenant world as establishing heaven and earth, what would its judgment and passing away sound like?

That brings us right back to Matthew 5:18. Jesus says not one part of the Law would pass until heaven and earth pass away and all is accomplished.

The Law and the passing of heaven and earth are tied together in Jesus’ statement. If heaven and earth there must mean the physical universe, then the Law has not passed either. But Isaiah has already shown us that covenant establishment could be spoken of as the establishing of heaven and earth.

That is the connection I do not want us to miss.

Israel’s covenant world was spoken of as heaven and earth when it was established. Jesus could therefore speak of that heaven and earth passing away when that covenant order reached its end. Luke 21 identifies the judgment on Jerusalem as the days that would fulfill what had been written.

Now go back to Hebrews and watch the pieces come together.

The first section was still standing and was symbolic of their present age. Its regulations remained until the time of reformation. The first covenant was obsolete, growing old, and ready to vanish away.

Are you beginning to see what time it was?

Hebrews 10:9 says Christ “abolishes the first in order to establish the second.” The New Covenant began at the cross, but the old covenant age came to its historical end when the Temple order that marked it was removed. One age had been passing away. The New Covenant age was being established in its fullness.

The Son of Man Comes in a Cloud

Now go back to Luke 21. Jesus has already described Jerusalem surrounded by armies and the days of vengeance that would fulfill what had been written. Then He keeps going.

Luke 21:25–28 speaks of signs in the sun, moon, and stars, distress among the nations, the powers of the heavens being shaken, and then the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. When these things began to happen, the disciples were to straighten up and raise their heads because their redemption was drawing near.

The second coming is not missing from the Jerusalem passage. We just have to keep reading.

Sun, moon, and stars are prophetic language too

If we read prophetic language like modern astronomy, we will imagine the physical sun going dark, the moon shutting off, and stars falling out of space. But Scripture uses this kind of language when governments, rulers, authorities, and established orders are brought down. I walk through this imagery more fully in What Is Preterism?, including Joseph’s dream in Genesis 37 and the way his family understood the sun, moon, and stars.

That is how an ancient Hebrew audience would hear it.

The point in Luke 21 is not that Jesus suddenly stops talking about Jerusalem and jumps thousands of years into the future to the destruction of the universe. The powers governing that covenant world were being shaken. The old order was coming down.

The same passage then says the Son of Man would come in a cloud, and Jesus includes all of these things in His statement that “this generation will not pass away until all has taken place.”

Redemption and resurrection belong to the same event

Before we talk about the cloud, notice what Jesus says about redemption. When these things began to take place, their redemption was drawing near.

Redemption was something New Testament believers possessed in Christ, but they were also waiting for its promised completion. Hebrews 9 makes the same distinction.

Hebrews 9:24 says Christ entered heaven itself to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Then Hebrews 9:28 says He would appear a second time, not to deal with sin again, but to save those who were eagerly waiting for Him.

He had already dealt with sin. They were not waiting for another sacrifice. They were waiting for the completion of salvation connected with His appearing.

That immediately raises the resurrection question.

When do the faithful enter the presence of the Lord? At resurrection. And when does the resurrection of the dead take place? At the return of Christ, right? If we still place the second coming in our future, then by the same framework the resurrection of the dead is still future too.

Follow that thought all the way through. If the resurrection is still future, then the dead are still waiting in Sheol for the redemption the New Testament said was drawing near.

Jesus says in John 6:40 that He would raise His people up “on the last day.” I understand that last day as the last day of the old covenant age, the age Hebrews identified with the standing Temple.

The destruction of that Temple marked the end of that age. We have a new Temple now, and it will last forever.

Genesis 17:7 says: “And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.”

The promise to Abraham came before the Law, and that promise was Christ, our Lord and Messiah (Galatians 3:16–18).

That is why 1 Corinthians 3:16 matters: “you are God’s temple and God’s Spirit dwells in you.”

The promise came before the Law. Christ is the center of the promise. His people are now His Temple. All Israel Will Be Saved: What Did Paul Mean? develops that Romans 9–11 question more fully, and Glory and Honor and Immortality follows the resurrection and immortality side of the discussion.

What would Jesus’ audience hear in “coming on the clouds”?

What do you picture when you hear that the Son of Man is coming in a cloud?

I used to picture it in the most literal way possible. I did the same thing with resurrection on the last day. But the question is not what picture immediately comes into my mind. The question is what the people hearing Jesus would understand from the language of their Scriptures.

Throughout the Old Testament, Yahweh comes on the clouds in judgment. You could almost call Him the Cloud Rider. When Yahweh came on the clouds, He meant business.

So when Jesus says the Son of Man would come on the clouds, He is not borrowing a dramatic weather image. He is taking divine judgment language to Himself. He is declaring His authority, His vindication, and His coming in glory.

The scene before the high priest makes that force impossible to miss.

In Matthew 26, Jesus is standing before Caiaphas, the scribes, and the elders. False witnesses accuse Him of saying He could destroy the Temple and rebuild it. The high priest then demands to know whether He is the Christ, the Son of God.

Jesus answers that from now on they would see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.

The high priest tears his robes and calls it blasphemy.

Why that reaction?

Because Jesus was not merely saying that someday, thousands of years later, a man would float down through the atmosphere. He was identifying Himself with the divine authority of the Cloud Rider. The leaders questioning Him understood the force of what He was claiming.

Jesus left that scene mocked, struck, and condemned. But He told those rulers that the One they were humiliating would be vindicated and would come in power and judgment.

That is why 1 Corinthians 2:8 fits the story so well: the rulers of that age did not understand what they were doing, because if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

They thought they were putting an end to His work… They were finishing it.

What Is the Great Tribulation? develops the first-century judgment setting around Jerusalem, while Is Jesus Coming Back? stays focused on the nature and timing of Christ’s coming.

This Generation Would See It All

Luke 21:29–33 gives us the timing statement that should control the whole discussion.

“Look at the fig tree, and all the trees… when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all has taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”

And that generation did not pass away until all those things had taken place, just as Christ said. His words are still alive today. Heaven and earth passed away, but His words did not. The last day of that old covenant age came with the destruction of the Temple in AD 70.

The greater-exodus pattern

Is it a coincidence that the exodus of national Israel out of Egypt was also a forty-year period, with miracles, signs, and wonders, that ended with the destruction of a great building and entrance into a promised land?

I’ll let you be the judge of that one.

The New Covenant was not waiting to begin in AD 70. It had begun at the cross. What ended in AD 70 was the old covenant age that had continued alongside the New Covenant during that transition, until the last day, the final judgment, when Jesus brought life to His people.

The old Temple was gone. God’s Temple is now His people. The Mosaic order was not waiting to be rebuilt. The promise to Abraham had always been moving toward Christ.

That is why What Is Preterism? is such an important next step. The issue is not merely choosing an end-times label. It is learning to take the audience, the covenant setting, and the timing statements seriously.

Stay Awake Until That Day

Luke 21:34–36 closes with a warning to the people Jesus was addressing. Watch yourselves. Stay awake. Pray for strength to escape all these things that are going to take place and to stand before the Son of Man.

Earlier He told those in Judea what to do when they saw Jerusalem surrounded by armies. Now He tells His disciples not to let that day catch them like a trap.

That warning makes sense because they could actually encounter the day He was describing.

The judgment was coming. The Son of Man would be there. His people were to watch for the sign Jesus gave them and believe His words.

Why was the second coming not observed as a physical event?

That question follows naturally. If I am saying the coming of the Son of Man belongs to that first-century judgment, why do we not have a report of Jesus physically descending through the sky over Jerusalem?

The second coming was spiritual. The resurrection was spiritual. And the change that happened to those still alive was spiritual. There is not one passage in Scripture that tells us Jesus would return in the flesh. A return in the flesh is not what a literal translation says. It is a notion imposed on the passages.

Luke 21 has not changed subjects. Jerusalem surrounded by armies, the days of vengeance, the shaking of the heavens, the coming of the Son of Man, redemption drawing near, the Kingdom drawing near, and “this generation” all belong to the same discourse.

That is why I believe many Christians are still waiting for a great future event that Scripture places in the past. They are waiting for Christ to raise the dead. Some are waiting for a third Temple and a restored Mosaic system. But Hebrews never tells us that the obsolete order would return. It tells us it was ready to vanish away.

I also do not read today’s wars, political crises, or the modern nation of Israel as the fulfillment of Luke 21. Jesus gave the sign, the audience, the city, and the generation. Moving those prophecies into our headlines changes the time setting He gave them.

Ten Reasons Futurism is Destructive carries that concern further without requiring this study to become a history of end-times systems.

What remains is not a restored Mosaic world. Righteousness now reigns through Christ. The Law will not return as the covenant governing God’s people. Scripture keeps bringing us back to the real division: belief and unbelief, Christ and Adam, faithful and unfaithful, spiritually alive and spiritually dead.

The dividing line is Christ.

Jesus says in John 3:3 that unless a person is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. When you trust in Christ, you are in Him and He is in you. Christ is not sitting somewhere far away waiting for another age before He can reign. He is alive in His people now.

Every time another person trusts in Christ, His life is present in another member of His body.

Do not forget the time change, my friends.

Set your clocks forward. The New Covenant age is here.