Compare Matthew 24:23; 24:26-27; 24:37-39; 24:17-18; 10:39; 24:40-41; 24:8; 24:5; 16:25; Mark 13:19-23; 13:14-16; 13:5-6; 8:35; Luke 21:8; 9:24; John 12:25
Everything will just be going along normally, routinely, such that many will assume that things will continue that way forever. And then, suddenly, when it’s too late to repent or to make preparations, the End will come.
Note: In verse 37, the translation should probably read vultures, not eagles. It’s vultures who circle about (dead) bodies, or carcasses. This might not seem important, but I once heard of a Gospel Doctrine class in which the teacher sought to find great significance in the appearance of “eagles” as a sign of the last days. “What country has an eagle as its symbol?” he asked his class. And the answer was supposed to be “America!” But, historically, it could just has easily have been imperial Rome, Habsburg Austria, the Tsarist Russia, the Byzantium of the Palaiologai emperors, or Nazi Germany. (Of course, more than a few countries ought to have vultures as their national symbol. But I’m aware of none with the honesty to do so.)
Posted from Cedar City, Utah
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