“Sign” of the “End of the Age” (Exegetical Eschatology)

In this 17th and final video in the Exegetical Eschatology series, Hank Hanegraaff, host of the Bible Answer Man broadcast, highlights a common characteristic of biblical prophecy—the prophets regularly employed final consummation language to characterize a near-future event. And that’s exactly what Christ was doing when He prophesied, “At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory” (Matthew 24:30). Far from predicting His second coming, Jesus was telling His disciples that those who witnessed Jerusalem’s destruction (AD 70) would in virtue of that event see His vindication and exaltation as Israel’s rightful king. Similarly, when the disciples asked Jesus about “the end of the age,” they were not asking Jesus about the end of the world (kosmos). They were rather asking Jesus about the end of the current corrupt age in the context of His chilling prediction of the destruction of the temple and its buildings.