Short Answer
Yes, the passages in Matthew 24 and Revelation 6 describe the same set of future events—cosmic disturbances during the tribulation period. Matthew gives a summary, while Revelation provides a detailed breakdown of those events. These are real, future judgments leading up to Christ’s return.
The Overview
The descriptions of the sun darkening, the moon losing its light, and the heavens being shaken appear in multiple parts of the Bible, including Matthew 24, Revelation 6, and several Old Testament prophecies. These are not separate or unrelated events but different perspectives on the same future period of global upheaval.
In Matthew 24, often called the Olivet Discourse, these events are summarized in a short and powerful passage. In contrast, the book of Revelation expands on these same events in much greater detail, particularly from chapters 6 through 19. The seals, trumpets, and judgments described in Revelation provide a fuller picture of what Matthew presents in brief form.
These cosmic disturbances are also echoed throughout the Old Testament in books like Joel, Isaiah, and Ezekiel. The repeated imagery of darkened skies and shaking heavens points to a real, future time of judgment often referred to as the “day of the Lord.” These are not merely symbolic descriptions but actual events that will affect the entire world.
This period is commonly understood as the tribulation—a seven-year time of intense judgment before Christ returns. At the end of this period, Christ will gather His people, defeat His enemies, and establish His kingdom. The consistency across Scripture confirms that these passages are describing the same climactic events in God’s plan.
Key Takeaways
- Matthew 24 and Revelation 6 Are Parallel
Both describe the same cosmic events during the end times. - Matthew Summarizes, Revelation Expands
Revelation gives detailed descriptions of what Matthew presents briefly. - Old Testament Prophecies Align
Joel, Isaiah, and Ezekiel describe the same kinds of cosmic disturbances. - These Events Are Future and Literal
They have not yet happened and will occur during the tribulation. - They Lead to Christ’s Return
The events culminate in Jesus establishing His kingdom.
The Source — The Speaker Transcript
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on the line with Pastor Mike. How can I help? >> Hi, Pastor Mike. We really appreciate your wisdom and your willingness to share it with us. U my question is Matthew 25 or not 25 but 24 29 through 31 and then Revelation 6 12-4. The question is if there were like parallel passages about the same event. They talk about this the sun and the moon and then like the stars and the sky going from the east and the west are being rolled up like a scroll. So if those are the same events or what event
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or different events are they? >> No, I I think you’re on to something very clear here and that is that these cataclysmic events of what’s going on with the sun and the moon and the things in the skies in the heavens as they would call it in the first century uh being shaken. And that’s how it’s put there in in Matthew 24. Uh certainly is being fulfilled in stages throughout the uh judgments that are listed for us from Revelation 6 through Revelation 19. Uh those chapters are all referring to
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what’s going on as is synthesized in the statements in Matthew 24 29 through31. In [snorts] other words, you’re getting all of of the highlights in a very short paragraph about all that’s going on with the seals and the BS and the trumpets. All of that is condensed in that statement in verses 29 through 31 in Matthew 24. That’s why I am one who interprets Matthew 24, the Olivet discourse. Not everybody does, but most people that teach on this station do that. This is a period of time that is
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describing what’s going on in that tribulational period. And that tribulational period is a time that I believe is destined as the 70th week of Daniel, the time of Jacob’s trouble, the time that the church is going to be removed from the earth for from that period of time. And that actually a lot of the Bible, not even written for us. It’s written for those that are going to be in it, written for us to know, at least in our mind, but not for our experience. Just like a lot of the dead
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saints certainly aren’t going to experience this uh in person. Uh and we also if we live and this starts at this particular point, I think it’s going to start with the rise of a of a world leader and we will be um out of here. I believe I believe that makes sense because these uh discussions in Daniel 7 are described for uh the time of of Jacob’s trouble, the 70th week of Daniel decreed for Israel and [snorts] Daniel’s uh holy city and Daniel’s people rather uh the people of Israel. So yes, you’ve
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made a good connection there. But I’d keep reading keep reading in in Revelation 6 and you’ll get all that goes on all the way to the gathering of the people together there and him coming back. You can add in chapter 14 of Zechariah and say all of this is discussed. You’ll see a lot regarding the day of the Lord in the Old Testament prophets that looks to this final end when we have cataclysmic events taking place. Joel chapter 2, Ezekiel 32, there’s a lot of passages that are going
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to talk about cataclysmic events, cosmic events in in the in the heavens. And I think all of those are referring not to some metaphorical or symbolic thing. I think they’re all talking about things that are actually going to happen where the world’s going to be falling apart because God is pouring out his wrath on the world and things are going to be really bad here on planet Earth. And I think that’s the great tribulation. As Jesus said, the greatest tribulation’s ever been, never been before, and never
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will be again, that seven-year period that’s coming. So, yes, I think that’s a good connection. Why Why do you ask that question, Jeremiah? you just >> because um yeah just with they just seem to me like they seem pretty parallel as far as like one one of them says like the the moon the the sun turns red or one of them says like the sun darkens. >> Yeah. >> And then talks about like how the this the sky is like rolled up like a squirrel and then the other section says like this the sky is like a like from
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east to west. So it just seems like I wasn’t sure if that was like [clears throat] >> the day of the wrath or if that’s >> Yes. >> if they were like parallel. >> Totally. >> That was just like the same like the same event. Is that the same event? >> Yes. It’s the same set of events. If you go to Joel chapter 2, same thing. Sun and moon are darkened. The stun the stars withdraw their shining. Ezekiel 32, it says, “I’m going to blot you out
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and cover the heavens and make the stars dark. I’ll cover the sun with a cloud and the moon will not give its light. So all these things obviously are from the perspective of standing on the on the face of the earth. But there’s going to be a time when everything in looking up is going to be going to be a mess. And all of that we see in the discussions of the coming of God’s judgment on the earth. The time for his recompense has come. These are statements made in the Old Testament and they haven’t happened
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yet. Right? And I’m I’m looking at Isaiah 13:10. The stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light. The sun will be dark at its rising and the moon will not shed its light. So something’s going on here on earth that I think is described in great detail in Revelation 6 all the way through chapter 19. And at the end in verse 31 of Matthew 24 when he talks about gathering his people together, his elect. His elect aren’t the saints of the church age. The elect are those that
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are converted during the tribulational period that didn’t get slaughtered yet. And those are all going to be described there in chapter 19 being saved by the arrival of Christ, which is what Zechariah is talking about at the end of chapter 13 and 14 of his of his prophecy. So all these things are yet to come. That’s what makes me as a Bible teacher a futurist. These kinds of things I look at, I read them and I think, okay, when is this going to happen? Uh it hasn’t happened yet. It’s
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going to happen. Well, when does it happen? And I think it happens in this time of Jacob’s trouble, this time of of the 70th week of Daniel, the coming of the son of man, when he sets up his kingdom. He’s going to be preceded by his judgment. And that judgment according to the book of Revelation and Daniel chapter 7 uh and Daniel chapter 9 rather uh is going to last for seven years. And I think it’s all coming and you’ve made a good connection there. Keep reading your Old Testament and
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you’ll make even more. Even if you just look for in in a common in a in your Bible software, you know, which you can find online and just type in darkening moon and sun, you’ll find these themes a lot and they’re all looking to the very end just before Christ comes back to set up a kingdom, a kingdom for Israel where Israel is reunited with all the people from the 12 tribes, which is what happens next in in Revelation 7. He’s starting to pull those 144,000 special sealed people from every tongue tribe
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and nation. They’re going to be a big part of the tribulational period and you’re going to see all of Israel restored. And then I think in Daniel chapter I’m sorry, Revelation chapter 20, he describes how long that kingdom is going to be for and it’s a thousand years repeated six or seven times in Daniel 7. So that’s why we say or at least I would say I’m a pre-millennialist. Millennium means a thousand years. It’s yet to come. that’s going to come when all these prophecies
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from Ezekiel 32, Joel 2, Amos 8, Isaiah 13, uh, Zechariah 14, all of those things are going to happen. And then God’s going to set up a kingdom for Israel. We’re going to rule and reign with Christ in the church age. Those of us that are resurrected at that time are taken up and changed. And all of this is yet to come. So yeah, that’s a good connection. Jesus spoke of it and that’s why Matthew 14 is yet to come. It hasn’t happened yet. >> Helpful, Jeremiah, is that help?
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>> Okay. Yeah, that that helps a lot. Yeah, maybe just one Okay. Quick question, maybe like a like a follow up. Um because I know you spoke like the end of Matthew about the gathering of the electives, the gathering of those who were saved during the tribulation. >> Is and so that that could be like Jew or Gentile or both. Well, primarily the focus is on Israel, but all throughout the book of Revelation, it does talk about the gospel going out to every tongue, tribe, and nation and people
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that are getting saved in the tribulation from every tongue, tribe, and nation. So, there’s some universal turning to Christ coming from every ethnic group. But the focus according to the Old Testament and even the book of Revelation starting in the very next chapter that you were quoting in in Revelation 6 is Revelation 7 where all the tribes Judah, Reuben, Gad, Asher, Napali, they’re all represented here as core people serving Christ. And I’m assuming based on everything that’s
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described about them in the book of Revelation, they’re serving Christ by spreading the gospel to the Jews. Now they they have a voice beyond that but people are being saved all over the world in the tribulational period. But the focus for God is fulfilling the promise to gather together as it says in Romans 11 that last generation of Israel and all of Israel then will be saved and the last generation he’s going to bring Israel. If you go there now and share the gospel most of them are going to
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reject you and say we don’t believe he’s the Messiah. Well at the end of time the most of them are going to say yes he is the Messiah. you’re going to see a mass conversion of Messianic Jews in in Israel, >> right? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So, that um I think that answered my question. So, I guess I you know at what’s like the Matthew 24, the gathering of the elect, that would happen after God already sealed the Jews and after they’ve preached the gospel >> to the world.
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>> Correct. They’re going to be gathered. If you read in chapter 19 of Revelation, they’re all going to be brought together. And then in verse 11 and following, uh, God, Christ himself is going to come back and judge their enemies and save them. They’re going to be saved by Christ personally. And you can tie that to to Zechariah 14. His feet are going to touch the Mount of Olives and he’s going to set up a kingdom. That’ll be the day when God finally comes and sets up the kingdom he
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keeps talking about. I mean, he we have a in a sense we have the kingdom here and that he’s ruling in our hearts and in our churches, but the world doesn’t give a rip about any of that. But one day, they all will after seven years of of torture. They’re going to realize their sin and they’re either going to die shaking their fist at God, uh, which you read in chapter 6, by the way, of Revelation. They all realize this is the wrath of God, just like everyone seems to when something big happens. And then
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the people that are turning to him, they’re going to be saved by Christ. and and and Christ is going to now set up a kingdom with Israel. And uh the rest of the dead are going to have to wait until after the thousand years is over to be judged and be assigned a place of punishment depending on how bad or uh how moderately bad they were. >> Yeah, good questions. Keep reading. >> Okay, I appreciate it. >> Yep. If if you want more on this, you go to pastormike.com and you can look up my
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13-week study on end times and it walks through all of this. So, it’ll help you kind of piece together the book of Revelation and maybe uh give you give you some deeper appreciation for all those Old Testament texts that I think refer to the same things going on in Revelation, including Matthew 24, which was a great connection that you made, Jeremiah.
