Daily Sacrifice, June 18 (24:3)
“What shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world [or, age]?”— Matthew 24:3.
IN order to get the true viewpoint it should be remembered that the great mystery of the one Body had not yet been revealed—so our Lord addressed His disciples as the believing remnant in Israel. A similar group will be found in the world (many in Palestine itself) in the time of the end (Dan. 12:4), during the dark days of the Great Tribulation (Dan. 12:1; Matt. 24:21,22), after the present parenthetical age has come to a close. We should not read this prophecy, therefore, as though addressed to the Church as such, but rather to the faithful in Israel waiting for the coming again of Messiah to bring in the promised Kingdom, when heaven’s authority will be acknowledged over all the earth. There are general principles that are applicable to all believers so long as Christ is absent. But the distinctive truth of the Church as the Body of Christ is not found here, nor is there any definite teaching as to the rapture of the saints when our Lord descends to the air at the close of this present dispensation (1 Thess. 4:13-18).
—Margaret E. Barber.