10. Outline of Future History in Matthew

That would be the Bible book of Matthew, in chapter 24.
Now would be a good time to dust off your Bible, and find Matt 24, where we find one of just a few places where God has placed an outline of His own in the Bible.

I say that, because there is no end under the sun of recent outlines of books of the Bible -- but few that have been placed there during the original writing of a book of the Bible.

In Matthew, the outline of Future History goes like this:
1. "The end is not yet" -- read Mt 24:4-6 -- when we see these things happen, we should not yet pack our bags, but we should be watchful and waiting.
2."The beginning of sorrows (or 'birth pangs')" -- read Mt 24:7-8 -- when we see these things happen, we should realize that we are on the threshold of the end times (see post #11 directly above)
3. "Then the end will come" -- read Mt 24:9-14 -- the time of chaos and eventual blessing arrives.

This outline was put in Matthew for a good reason. These are actually answers to a question that was asked in 24:3, which was in response to a comment Jesus made in 24:2 :

As Jesus' disciples were pointing out the greatness of the temple, Jesus told them "Do you not see all these things? Truly I tell you, not one stone of the temple will be left upon another. It will all be torn down." So the disciples ask him privately, "Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming, and of the end of the age?"

And the answer to that question occupies most of the rest of Matthew chapter 24.
But here is a question for you to consider: Was the disciples' question actually two questions? Or maybe even three questions? The answer to that determines how we are going to interpret Jesus' primary teaching on the end times.

And there will be many more posts about that issue as we proceed.