Matthew 24:29 – 31

The Dark Ages and the Second Coming of Christ

29 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

31 And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Soon after the destruction of Jerusalem the evil influences of the Roman empire and ambitious men in the church will cause the restriction of God's truth to be shared with men. That is what is indicated figuratively by the “sun will be darkened.” “the moon will not give its light,” “the stars will fall from heaven,” and “the powers of the heavens will be shaken.” This is what we know as the Dark Ages.

The sun refers to Jesus Christ. The moon refers to the church, and the stars refers to the teachers and other leading men of the church.

There were still faithful disciples in the world but since the Bible was taken away from the common man, it greatly restricted the light of the divine truth which comes from Christ and passed on through the church which is what is meant by the sun, moon and stars ceasing to shine. It also means the powers which originated in heaven were agitated by the revolution of the dark ages

In verse 30 Jesus turns to the second subject of the questions asked by His disciples in verse 3, His second coming. It is clear the second coming will follow the Dark Ages. But Jesus does not give us a time frame of when He will return. But it will be the next major event following the Dark Ages which ended with the work of Martin Luther and the other Reformers, thus known as the Reformation.

The mourning by the tribes of the earth is the same as is predicted in Revelation 1:7. ( Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen.)

His returning in the clouds is also mentioned in Acts 1:11( who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.” )

and Jude 14 - 15(Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, 15 to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”)

Jude 15 gives the reasoning for the mourning of all the people of the earth, because of the judgment he will execute and the conviction of the ungodly for their deeds which have been committed.

Verse 31 tells us when He comes again He will gather all of the faithful to Him. When His angels gather the saved ones it is related in Matthew 13:39 it will be at the end of the earth (The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels.)

The second coming will be announced by the sound of a trumpet which is also given to us in:

1 Corinthians 15:52 (in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.)

and 1 Thessalonians 4:16 ( For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.)