God's RSVP List

In Matthew 22 we read a parable that Jesus told to the chief priest and Pharisees for them to understand the Kingdom of heaven. In this parable Jesus made clear charges that their invitations to the wedding feast were revoked because of their unbelief. Jews who chose to believe in Christ were of course still on God’s RSVP list. Jesus also made it clear that other people would be invited in the chief priest and Pharisees’ place. If you are a non-Jew who is a believer then this encompasses you.

The parable ends in verses 11-14 with a peculiar scenario. Jesus mentioned a man who was in attendance of the wedding feast, who had not been invited. But how could this be since many ministers today teach that the wedding feast will take place in heaven during the tribulation? How could a non-believer make it to heaven without an invitation? Well this would be a contradiction, so let us step back and take a closer look at the wedding feast that Christ mentioned.

Let us look at a reference in Isaiah 25:6-8. He states that, “on this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples” (NIV). He goes on in more detail about the extravagance of the feast in verses 7 and 8. But what mountain is He referring to? If we look in the previous chapter we not only find out what mountain that he is referring to, but also what time frame the wedding feast will take place. Isaiah 24:23 states that, “The moon will be abashed, the sun ashamed for the Lord Almighty will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem and before its elders gloriously” (NIV). He specifically noted that the mountain was Mount Zion in Jerusalem, but what about the time frame? Well to find the answer we need to read Matthew 24:29-31. “Immediately after the distress (this Hebrew word means tribulation) of those days “’the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’ “At that time the sign of the Son of man will appear in the sky, and all the nations will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with great power and glory”.

So from these scriptures we can see that the great wedding feast will take place on Mount Zion in Jerusalem after the tribulation. We will look a little more into the kingdom of heaven that will be established in Jerusalem in the future. This will help spread some light to the “weeping and gnashing of teeth” references found so many times in NT scriptures. As for now, this is just a small example of why as Christians we need to study the Word on our own, because if we do not, we can be tossed back and forth with all kinds of doctrines.

What in the World is Going On?

Jesus tells us in Matthew 24 that in the end times we will see wars, famines, and earthquakes in various places. Optimists usually make the statement that all these events have been occurring since the beginning of time. Although this is true, a closer look into Matthew 24 reveals something overlooked by these idealists.

After describing several of the above mentioned events Jesus made an interesting statement in verse 8, “All these are the beginnings of birth pains.” This sheds a whole new light on these end time events. When thinking about birth pains I am reminded of my wife when she was pregnant with our children. During pregnancy, women experience what is called Braxton Hicks contractions. These contractions begin as early as 6 weeks of pregnancy and continue on until labor. They are very irregular and in the early stages of pregnancy they are very weak. Many women confuse these early contractions with early labor, but actually the purpose for these contractions are literally to prepare the woman’s body for delivery. They tone the uterine muscle and promote the flow of blood to the placenta (Braxton, 2006).

Applying this knowledge to Matthew 24 we can see how it is true that there have been wars, famines, and earthquakes all throughout history, but these events were just Braxton Hicks and not the real thing. Several of the events that happened could be confused with true labor pains that Jesus mentioned, but they were just false labor. I have mentioned several times that if I was alive during WWII I would have sworn Hitler to be the anti-christ.

So how do we know true labor from Braxton Hicks contractions? I believe that we look at the occurrence of the events. When my wife went into labor with my children, we could time her contractions, and knew the closeness of delivery by the closeness of her contractions. For example already this year more than 223,000 people have died then all of last year (USGS, 2010) in earthquakes. As the time grows closer we will see all the events in Matthew 24 more frequently, until then we are commanded to watch.