Post by Allyn on May 26, 2008 7:16:02 GMT -5
Jesus did not know the “day and hour” of his return (Matt. 24:36). However, he knew it would take place before his generation had expired. That clearly precludes a delay spanning two millennia or even a single century.
Jesus instructed his apostles to hurry because the time for preaching before his return was relatively short:
…whenever they persecute you in one city, flee to the next; for truly I say to you, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel until the Son of Man comes. (Matt. 10:23, NASB throughout unless otherwise noted.)
This emphatic statement leaves no room for an enormous delay. It would certainly not take thousands of years to reach all the cities of Israel. In fact, most of those cities were destroyed by a.d. 70. So Christ’s coming had to be fulfilled by that time.
Jesus clearly understood the general timing of his return and the Judgment. He guaranteed that they would occur within the lifetimes of his contemporaries:
27“For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay every man according to his deeds.
28“Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.” (Matt. 16:27f)
(The NASB which incorporates boldface verse numbers to denote new paragraphs inserts a break at verse 28. However, the Nestle-Aland 27th edition of The Greek New Testament does not.)
Responding to questions from Peter, James, John, and Andrew regarding signs to precede the destruction of the Temple (Mark 13:3; Matt. 24:3), Jesus emphatically declared that the entire Olivet Prophecy would be fulfilled before his generation had passed:
33…when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door. 34“Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.” (Matt. 24:33f)
The very people to whom Jesus was speaking would see “all these things take place.” The Temple was destroyed in a.d. 70. Therefore, the rest of “these things” must have taken place about the same time. Among other things, they included the preaching of the gospel to “the whole world” (v. 14), “the abomination of desolation” (v. 15), “the Son of Man coming on the clouds” (v. 30) and the gathering of the “elect” (v. 31).
Luke’s account of the Olivet Discourse reveals that all Old Testament prophecy was to be fulfilled about the time of the Temple’s destruction. The Resurrection, Rapture and arrival of the Kingdom of God were predicted to coincide with that catastrophe:
…these are days of vengeance, so that all things which are written will be fulfilled. (Luke 21:22); …when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near. (v. 28); …when you see these things happening, recognize that the kingdom of God is near. (v. 31)
“The Revelation of Jesus Christ” (Rev. 1:1) promised the persecuted first-century Christians that the fulfillment of the events described therein was “near”:
…the time is near (ch. 1:3); Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. (ch. 22:10)
The Apostles’ interpretation
All the New Testament authors, including the apostles, believed they were living in the “last days” — that “evil age” (Gal. 1:4) — and would soon be rescued from the wrath about to come upon their persecutors. They all believed and were inspired by the Holy Spirit to write in Scripture that Christ’s predictions would be fulfilled during their lifetimes:
1God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, 2in these last days has spoken to us in His Son… (Heb. 1:1f)
…now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. (Heb. 9:26)
He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you (1Pet. 1:20)
Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. (1Cor. 10:11)
Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you. (Jas. 5:1); It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure! (v. 3b)
[Jesus Christ] gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age (Gal. 1:4)
…wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come. (1Thess. 1:10)
6…it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, 7and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels… (2Thess. 1:6f)
Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour. (1John 2:18)
11…it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep… 12The night is almost gone, and the day is near. (Rom. 13:11f)
Do not seek a wife. (1Cor. 7:27b); 29…the time has been shortened, so that from now on those who have wives should be as though they had none; 30…those who buy, as though they did not possess; 31…for the form of this world is passing away. (vv. 29-31)
We tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not meet him ahead of those who have died. (1Thess. 4:15, NLT); …together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. (v. 17, NLT)
…we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed (1Cor. 15:51b)
…encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near. (Heb. 10:25)
The end of all things is near (1Pet. 4:7)
Regarding the signs leading up to his return, Jesus said the following to his disciples:
…when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door. (Matt. 24:33)
Later in the first century, James wrote this:
8…the coming of the Lord is near. 9…behold, the Judge is standing right at the door. (Jas. 5:8b, 9b)
The Apostolic interpretation cannot be wrong
The gospel preached by the apostles and other New Testament authors came directly from the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit:
…the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. (John 14:26)
…when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth…He will disclose to you what is to come. (John 16:13)
…our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction… (1Thess. 1:5)
8…even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! 9As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed! (Gal. 1:8f); For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. (v. 12)
Therefore, the Second Coming and all related events must have occurred in the first century. Those taking any other position dare to presume that they understand the timing of these events better than the divinely inspired apostles of Jesus Christ and fail to consider the following:
The apostles were preaching exactly what they had been taught by Jesus;
They were promised divine revelation regarding “what is to come”;
They recorded their teachings in divinely inspired Scripture.
The suggestion that the apostles were wrong implies one or more of the following:
The Holy Spirit failed to tell the apostles “what is to come,” or;
The apostles misunderstood the Holy Spirit’s inspiration;
The New Testament contains serious errors;
Jesus was misleading the apostles, or;
Jesus was wrong too, in which case, God the Father was wrong as well because he was telling Jesus what to say (John 3:34; 12:49; 14:10, 24; 17:8).
If the apostles were wrong, Jewish people have no option but to reject their gospel. For Jews, anyone making predictions in the name of God must be judged by the Law of Moses which pronounces a death sentence on false prophets:
20‘…the prophet who speaks a word presumptuously in My name which I have not commanded him to speak…that prophet shall die.’
21“You may say in your heart, ‘How will we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’
22“When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.” (Deut. 18:20-22)
“God’s household” was “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone” (Eph. 2:19b-20; Rev. 21:14). The popular delusion presents a church built on a foundation of classic false prophets. If Jesus, his “holy apostles” (Eph. 3:5), the Holy Spirit and Holy Scripture all failed so miserably in the first century, why would any sensible person trust these sources for a future fulfillment — or salvation?
Jeremiah reaffirmed the criterion by which a prophet should be validated:
Only when his predictions come true can we know that he is really from the Lord. (Jer. 28:9b, NLT)
Jeremiah was referring to the false prophet Hananiah who was killed by God for making a time-restricted false prediction (Jer. 28:1-17).
Ezekiel condemned false prophets:
Thus says the Lord God, “Woe to the foolish prophets who are following their own spirit and have seen nothing.” (Ezek. 13:3)
Zechariah strongly condemned false prophets:
…his own father and mother will tell him, ‘You must die, for you have prophesied lies in the name of the Lord.’ And as he prophesies, his own father and mother will stab him. (Zech. 13:3b, NLT)
God insures that predictions made by his prophets do not fail:
Samuel grew and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fail. (1Sam. 3:19); Behold now, there is a man of God [Samuel] in this city, and the man is held in honor; all that he says surely comes true. (ch. 9:6)
24This is what the Lord says…“I am the Lord… 25I expose the false prophets as liars…I cause the wise to give bad advice, thus proving them to be fools. 26But I carry out the predictions of my prophets!” (Isa. 44:24-26, NLT)
There is only one acceptable conclusion: the apostles were right. Otherwise, they were false prophets — “fools” and “liars” deserving execution — and we Christians are wasting our time studying their unreliable predictions in the supposed “inerrant” or “infallible” Word of God. All Scripture referring to end-time events must relate to the Jewish War with Rome (a.d. 66-70) which culminated in the destruction of the Temple and the end of animal sacrifices. The promised Second Coming, Resurrection, Rapture and Judgment must have occurred during that period. The interpretations of difficult prophetic passages must be consistent with this premise.
Jesus instructed his apostles to hurry because the time for preaching before his return was relatively short:
…whenever they persecute you in one city, flee to the next; for truly I say to you, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel until the Son of Man comes. (Matt. 10:23, NASB throughout unless otherwise noted.)
This emphatic statement leaves no room for an enormous delay. It would certainly not take thousands of years to reach all the cities of Israel. In fact, most of those cities were destroyed by a.d. 70. So Christ’s coming had to be fulfilled by that time.
Jesus clearly understood the general timing of his return and the Judgment. He guaranteed that they would occur within the lifetimes of his contemporaries:
27“For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay every man according to his deeds.
28“Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.” (Matt. 16:27f)
(The NASB which incorporates boldface verse numbers to denote new paragraphs inserts a break at verse 28. However, the Nestle-Aland 27th edition of The Greek New Testament does not.)
Responding to questions from Peter, James, John, and Andrew regarding signs to precede the destruction of the Temple (Mark 13:3; Matt. 24:3), Jesus emphatically declared that the entire Olivet Prophecy would be fulfilled before his generation had passed:
33…when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door. 34“Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.” (Matt. 24:33f)
The very people to whom Jesus was speaking would see “all these things take place.” The Temple was destroyed in a.d. 70. Therefore, the rest of “these things” must have taken place about the same time. Among other things, they included the preaching of the gospel to “the whole world” (v. 14), “the abomination of desolation” (v. 15), “the Son of Man coming on the clouds” (v. 30) and the gathering of the “elect” (v. 31).
Luke’s account of the Olivet Discourse reveals that all Old Testament prophecy was to be fulfilled about the time of the Temple’s destruction. The Resurrection, Rapture and arrival of the Kingdom of God were predicted to coincide with that catastrophe:
…these are days of vengeance, so that all things which are written will be fulfilled. (Luke 21:22); …when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near. (v. 28); …when you see these things happening, recognize that the kingdom of God is near. (v. 31)
“The Revelation of Jesus Christ” (Rev. 1:1) promised the persecuted first-century Christians that the fulfillment of the events described therein was “near”:
…the time is near (ch. 1:3); Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. (ch. 22:10)
The Apostles’ interpretation
All the New Testament authors, including the apostles, believed they were living in the “last days” — that “evil age” (Gal. 1:4) — and would soon be rescued from the wrath about to come upon their persecutors. They all believed and were inspired by the Holy Spirit to write in Scripture that Christ’s predictions would be fulfilled during their lifetimes:
1God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, 2in these last days has spoken to us in His Son… (Heb. 1:1f)
…now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. (Heb. 9:26)
He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you (1Pet. 1:20)
Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. (1Cor. 10:11)
Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you. (Jas. 5:1); It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure! (v. 3b)
[Jesus Christ] gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age (Gal. 1:4)
…wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come. (1Thess. 1:10)
6…it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, 7and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels… (2Thess. 1:6f)
Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour. (1John 2:18)
11…it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep… 12The night is almost gone, and the day is near. (Rom. 13:11f)
Do not seek a wife. (1Cor. 7:27b); 29…the time has been shortened, so that from now on those who have wives should be as though they had none; 30…those who buy, as though they did not possess; 31…for the form of this world is passing away. (vv. 29-31)
We tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not meet him ahead of those who have died. (1Thess. 4:15, NLT); …together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. (v. 17, NLT)
…we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed (1Cor. 15:51b)
…encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near. (Heb. 10:25)
The end of all things is near (1Pet. 4:7)
Regarding the signs leading up to his return, Jesus said the following to his disciples:
…when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door. (Matt. 24:33)
Later in the first century, James wrote this:
8…the coming of the Lord is near. 9…behold, the Judge is standing right at the door. (Jas. 5:8b, 9b)
The Apostolic interpretation cannot be wrong
The gospel preached by the apostles and other New Testament authors came directly from the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit:
…the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. (John 14:26)
…when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth…He will disclose to you what is to come. (John 16:13)
…our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction… (1Thess. 1:5)
8…even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! 9As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed! (Gal. 1:8f); For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. (v. 12)
Therefore, the Second Coming and all related events must have occurred in the first century. Those taking any other position dare to presume that they understand the timing of these events better than the divinely inspired apostles of Jesus Christ and fail to consider the following:
The apostles were preaching exactly what they had been taught by Jesus;
They were promised divine revelation regarding “what is to come”;
They recorded their teachings in divinely inspired Scripture.
The suggestion that the apostles were wrong implies one or more of the following:
The Holy Spirit failed to tell the apostles “what is to come,” or;
The apostles misunderstood the Holy Spirit’s inspiration;
The New Testament contains serious errors;
Jesus was misleading the apostles, or;
Jesus was wrong too, in which case, God the Father was wrong as well because he was telling Jesus what to say (John 3:34; 12:49; 14:10, 24; 17:8).
If the apostles were wrong, Jewish people have no option but to reject their gospel. For Jews, anyone making predictions in the name of God must be judged by the Law of Moses which pronounces a death sentence on false prophets:
20‘…the prophet who speaks a word presumptuously in My name which I have not commanded him to speak…that prophet shall die.’
21“You may say in your heart, ‘How will we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’
22“When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.” (Deut. 18:20-22)
“God’s household” was “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone” (Eph. 2:19b-20; Rev. 21:14). The popular delusion presents a church built on a foundation of classic false prophets. If Jesus, his “holy apostles” (Eph. 3:5), the Holy Spirit and Holy Scripture all failed so miserably in the first century, why would any sensible person trust these sources for a future fulfillment — or salvation?
Jeremiah reaffirmed the criterion by which a prophet should be validated:
Only when his predictions come true can we know that he is really from the Lord. (Jer. 28:9b, NLT)
Jeremiah was referring to the false prophet Hananiah who was killed by God for making a time-restricted false prediction (Jer. 28:1-17).
Ezekiel condemned false prophets:
Thus says the Lord God, “Woe to the foolish prophets who are following their own spirit and have seen nothing.” (Ezek. 13:3)
Zechariah strongly condemned false prophets:
…his own father and mother will tell him, ‘You must die, for you have prophesied lies in the name of the Lord.’ And as he prophesies, his own father and mother will stab him. (Zech. 13:3b, NLT)
God insures that predictions made by his prophets do not fail:
Samuel grew and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fail. (1Sam. 3:19); Behold now, there is a man of God [Samuel] in this city, and the man is held in honor; all that he says surely comes true. (ch. 9:6)
24This is what the Lord says…“I am the Lord… 25I expose the false prophets as liars…I cause the wise to give bad advice, thus proving them to be fools. 26But I carry out the predictions of my prophets!” (Isa. 44:24-26, NLT)
There is only one acceptable conclusion: the apostles were right. Otherwise, they were false prophets — “fools” and “liars” deserving execution — and we Christians are wasting our time studying their unreliable predictions in the supposed “inerrant” or “infallible” Word of God. All Scripture referring to end-time events must relate to the Jewish War with Rome (a.d. 66-70) which culminated in the destruction of the Temple and the end of animal sacrifices. The promised Second Coming, Resurrection, Rapture and Judgment must have occurred during that period. The interpretations of difficult prophetic passages must be consistent with this premise.
