Joel 2:11 And the Lord shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?

Jesus answers His disciples about the three questions asked in Matthew 24 by quoting Joel. How you define the questions has everything to do with how you understand the answer. We have no way to comprehend the thoughts of the disciples when they asked about the end of the age. We are left with the horrible task of picking a definition.

Answers only have clarity if they are placed in context to the question without ambiguity. What age were they looking for answers? The issue of generational age is assumed to be between 40 and 70 years. I have seen the passages in Matthew 24 being tied together so that any historical prophetic event becomes nullified.

When prophecy has been fulfilled, that event is over and should not be reassigned to satisfy personal desires. This leads to false assumptions and looking to events in current history to match prophetic scriptures when they have no bearing on future events.

We of this church age often look to scriptures to glimpse at what we call the end of the church age. Once again, we are choosing to define an age with unspecific timelines for our own personal comfort and hope. I too have looked for those signs of His second coming, assuming as others have that this marks the end of the church age.

What if, mind you, what if the church age does not end until the wedding? If you look at Jewish history the betrothed is called a bride, not because she is married but because the bridegroom has committed Himself to her without any possibility of backing out before the wedding.

Does the event called the rapture have anything to do with the end of the church age? Isn’t that what we are really asking?

Matthew 24:29-30 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

As I read this over again, my focus changed from those things I have pondered countless times to an issue I have overlooked. It is in this line of verse; all the tribes of the earth mourn. Everyone, all the tribes of earth, will be in the same condition of mourning. What exactly are they going to be mourning?

I am considering the issue of the light being taken away as a source of the common cause. What does light provide? Illumination, vision, a perception of our reality, what we perceive to be our truths. Having all that stripped away, no matter what we believed, can only be received in one way. I was wrong. No matter what they thought, no matter what believed, no matter where they placed their trust, they all came to an understanding that they were wrong.

Then appeared the sign of the Son, a symbol of His identity which is the polar opposite of their wrong condition. They see the truth coming. I do not know how long they will mourn because it is not a mourning like anything they have ever experienced before. I doubt the classic cycle of mourning; denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance will occur. They will not have enough time for all that. Because they do not know truth and truth is coming, they will not know what to expect.

We who do believe understand exactly what is about to happen.

The great and terrible day of the Lord is about to fall upon them.