Matthew Chapter 24 - Part 1

(Mat 24:3-5)
And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.

Matthew Chapter 24 contains all end time events recorded in the order as they would take place on earth. However, it is obvious that all of these events would not be witnessed by one generation. Therefore, no single generation under the sun can experience everything recorded in Matthew 24 in their life time.

Matthew Chapter 24 consists of 51 verses. But the 31st verse records the last event of the series of the end time events therein. What is this event???

Yes , the 31st verse talks about the RAPTURE.

(Mat 24:31)
And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

RAPTURE does not mark the End of the World. When we refer to the Book of Revelation, we see many things are yet to happen after the RAPTURE. However, in Matthew Chapter 24, Jesus is talking to the generation that is going to face the RAPTURE in their life time. How do we prove this point?

Now, let us look at the 6th verse of Matthew Chapter 24.
(Mat 24:6)
And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

By this verse, Jesus is talking to a generation, who has not seen or experienced wars in their life time, but have received the opportunity of hearing wars that have already taken place in the past.  
In the past, there had been two wars. We refer to these two wars as World War I and World War II  as almost all major countries in the World were engaged in these two wars. There has never been another war that can be compared with these two wars ever since. In other words, we have not faced another World War after the World War II. 

Yes, our generation has heard of World War I and World War II, but never experienced them. They were so weird. But the end did not come. Now if you just imagine Jesus is talking to our generation by the 6th verse, then we hear Him saying to us that  we hear of wars and rumors of wars, but the end is not yet. Further He is asking us not to be troubled as these things should come first.

Why is Jesus asking us not to be troubled even when we only hear of wars without going through them?

Yes, Jesus knows that we become troubled as the end did not come by then. That is why Jesus is telling, 'as these things should come first' right after asking us not to be troubled.

Well, now let's come to the next event to make sure whether it is still our generation, Jesus is talking to, in Matthew 24. (Mat 24:7-8)
For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.

Okay, there had been times in the past that nations rose against nations and kingdoms against kingdoms. Before World War I and World War II, these things happened and even after World War I and World War III, these things happened. There had been famines and pestilences in the past too. However, none of these past events was accompanied by one single event which Jesus has given right in the 8th verse. Guess what?

Yes, it is 'EARTHQUAKES IN DIVERSE PLACES'.

Obviously, right now, nations are rising against nations and kingdoms against kingdoms. We hear many famines and pestilences in various places, and at the same time, all of these events are accompanied by earthquakes in diverse places.

If you are someone, who follows earthquakes happening in the world, you realize that since 2010, we have begun to witness earthquakes as never before. Now, every single day, there are many earth tremors all over the world. No generation in the history has ever witnessed earthquakes in the way we witness today. But to our surprise, in the midst of these earthquakes, we witness nations rising against nations and kingdoms against kingdoms making the environment to another world war, which is to be referred by our generation as WORLD WAR III (Remember, Number 3 is a biblical number). Hence when we take all these events together, we can come to the conclusion that still Jesus is talking to our generation.