Who are the elect in the Olivet discourse?
For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. (Matthew 24:21–24 ESV)
“Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, 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. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. (Matthew 24:29–31 ESV)
Of course, there are a variety of approaches to this passage, depending on one’s approach to eschatology.
What I want to highlight in this blog post is that one’s assumptions regarding the publication date of Matthew can impact how one interprets the teachings of Jesus. Contrary to what some theologians claim, the date is not a merely esoteric concern.
Was Matthew published before or after Paul’s teachings which refer to Christians as the elect (e.g., Rom. 8:33)? For J. Oliver Buswell (1895-1977), president of Wheaton college from 1926 to 1940, his understanding of Matthew’s publication date was an essential part of his argument that “the elect” in the Olivet discourse refer to Christians rather than to Jews and therefore the gathering of the elect must refer to the rapture:
There is a very considerable group of Bible students who hold that the words, “the elect,” in the Olivet discourse refer only to the Jews. This opinion seems to me wholly unsupported. On the contrary I should urge (1) that the gospels of Matthew and Mark were written at a date subsequent to the principal epistles of the Apostle Paul, and that if the Lord in the Olivet discourse had meant by “the elect” anything other than what is meant in such passages as Romans 8:33, both Matthew and Mark would have given some indication, for Paul’s vocabulary must have been quite familiar throughout the church by the time these Gospels were written and put into circulation. (2) It is evident that Christ was answering the questions put to Him by the apostles, not for the apostles only, but for the entire church throughout the present age. … 1
Buswell was a premillennialist who affirmed that there was an eschatological future for national Israel, yet he differed from other contemporary premillennialists on the timing of the rapture, the identification of the elect in the Olivet discourse, etc.2
It is not my interest here to debate eschatology. Rather, to merely demonstrate that our assumptions regarding the publication date of Matthew can impact how we hear and understand what our Lord said, so this should motivate us to get this right.