It’s hard to imagine Evangelicals saying that Jesus and his apostles were wrong about one of the most important doctrines of the church but that’s exactly what many believe about the return of Christ.
Peter, James, John, Paul, the writer of Hebrews, the angel who spoke to John in Revelation, and even Jesus all thought and the apostles wrote that Jesus would return in their lifetime – not two thousand years later. Were they mistaken? Jesus thought, and taught, that John the Apostle would still be alive when He returned. Was He mistaken?
Let’s hear it in their words:
JESUS SAID HE WOULD RETURN IN THEIR LIFETIME:
“For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done. I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” – Mt. 16:27,28
“Tell us, when will these things be (the destruction of the temple), and what will be the sign of your coming, and of the end of the age? . . . This generation will not pass away until all of these things take place.” – Mt. 24:3,34
“Behold, I am coming soon! (tachu – quickly, speedily (without delay)) Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy in this book.” – Rev. 22:7,12,20
“You (Chief Priests and Sanhedrin) shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven.” – Mt. 26:64
“If I want him (John) to remain until I come, what is that to you. You follow me!” – Jn. 21:21-23 (According to church tradition, all the apostles except John died before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.)
“All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another. I tell you the truth, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.” – Mt. 10:22-23
JOHN WROTE THAT JESUS IS COMING SOON
“The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to make known to his servants the things which must shortly (en tachos – lit.: in speed, usages: quickly, shortly, soon, speedily) come to pass.” – Rev. 1:1
“Blessed is he that reads . . . hears . . . and keeps the things written (in this prophecy), for the time is at hand.” (eggus – near, of place or position). – Rev. 1:3
“The world is passing away . . . it is the last hour (eschatos ) . . . Even now many antichrists have arisen; from this we know that it is the last hour.” – 1 Jn. 2:17-18
THE ANGEL WHO SPOKE TO JOHN SHOWED HIM WHAT WOULD HAPPEN SOON
“The angel said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true. The Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent his angel to show his servants the things that must soon take place.” (en tachos – quickly) – Rev. 22:6
PAUL EXORTED THEM TO GODLY LIVING BECAUSE THEIR TIME WAS SHORT
“The time is short (sustello – to draw together, hence, to wrap up), from now on it would be wise for those who have wives to be as if they had them not.” – 1 Cor. 7:29
“And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.” – Rom. 13:11-12
“The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.” – Rom. 16:20
“These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.” – 1 Cor. 10:11
THE WRITER OF HEBREWS ENCOURAGED PERSEVERANCE BECAUSE JESUS WOULD NOT DELAY HIS COMING
“Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another– and all the more as you see the Day approaching. . . . You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For in just a very little while, “He who is coming will come and will not delay.”” – Heb. 10:25,36-37
JAMES WROTE THE SECOND COMING WAS IMMINENT
“The coming of the Lord is at hand . . . the Judge is standing right at the door” – 5:8,9
PETER WROTE THAT THEY WERE IN THE LAST DAYS AND IT WAS TIME FOR JUDGMENT TO BEGIN
“Christ was manifest in these last times.” (eschatos – extreme, last in time, place, or space) – 1 Pet. 1:20
“The end of all things is at hand.” (eggizo – to come or bring near, to join one thing to another, to approach) – 1 Pet. 4:7
“It is time for judgment to begin.” – 1 Pet. 4:17
Whew!
That’s twenty two statements in the New Testament encouraging the brethren to godly living because Jesus was about to return, in the lifetime of at least some of them. Only two authors in the whole New Testament don’t have anything to say about this. And you were thinking maybe only one or two verses said this, right?
When this question is raised it’s often said that since God is the actual author of the bible He was inspiring all of these people to write from His perspective, not from the perspective of men. They quote “a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day,” so when Jesus and his disciples said he would return “soon” we are to believe these six or seven individuals knew full well their audience would take “soon” to mean soon instead of a few thousand years later. We are supposed to believe that Jesus told the disciples some of them would see His return but He really meant they would all be dead and buried at least 2000 years before He returned. In other words, he purposefully deceived them just to get them to live godly lives, and the other biblical authors were in on perpetuated this myth.
This is what Futurist teachers like Jack Van Impe, Hal Lindsey, and Lamb and Lion Ministries would have you believe, that Jesus had to lie to the church to get them motivated to live for God.
Crazy, huh?
Not only is the Holy Spirit able to motivate from within but I also think, and I may be going out on a limb to say this – Jesus has more integrity than that.
Some may counter that the Holy Spirit “wrote” from his perspective where 2000 years is a blink of an eye, but the humans who actually wrote it down wrote from their perspective, thinking soon meant soon, as in their lifetime, and so the encouragement to godly living. If that’s the case then Jesus was clueless about what he was saying and was spreading lies on behalf of the Holy Spirit, unknowingly. It’s one thing for him to say he didn’t know the day or the hour of his return, but it’s another thing for him to errantly believe he would return in his generation and teach this falsehood as if it were true.
The gist of 2 Peter 3 which has the verse about a day is like a thousand years, is that God would fulfill His promises on His timetable, within the time constraints already given by Jesus and His apostles. It was going to happen. Soon. Stay faithful.
This interpretation maintains the integrity of everyone involved, including the Holy Spirit.
The scoffers Peter mentioned didn’t believe it was going to happen at all. They didn’t have faith that God was able to do as He said He would do. They didn’t even believe God was involved in the world at all and that anyone needed to be accountable to God. They looked at the Christians and said, “Look you bunch of whiny sissies God isn’t involved with mankind, doesn’t give a rat’s behind that you are being persecuted by the Jews, isn’t going to do anything about it, and the proof is you’re all still here whining about it. Get over it already!”
“Uh, gosh, maybe we got the timing off and he won’t be back for a couple thousand years. That sucks. But hey, he will be back you scoffers. We guarantee it.”
“Haaaa! Jesus tricked you into thinking he would return soon! Suckers!”
Do you see how pathetic of a witness that would be?
When the brethren in Thessalonica (2 Thes. 2) thought Christ had already returned were they not obviously looking for it to happen in their lifetime? According to Paul’s letter to them some thought that Jesus had already returned. They obviously thought that it wouldn’t be as obvious as Futurists today think it will be else they would have figured Paul and everyone else on the planet had seen it come to pass. But since only a few thought it had occurred they must have thought it wouldn’t be that obvious. They were expecting something not-so-obvious which they thought had happened.
Paul’s answer to them was not that they should not be looking for it in their lifetime since it was at least 2000 years off. His answer to them was that they should continue to look for it, but more “signs” must be fulfilled before Christ’s return. They should continue to keep watching and not be lulled into thinking it was either behind them or so far off in the future that it didn’t concern them.
This is why the church is confused on the return of Christ. Instead of taking the time keys given at face value, we think, “I don’t see that Jesus actually did return in their lifetime so it must have been for a later time. Their timing WAS off. Even Jesus had it wrong.”
Not likely. They knew exactly what they were saying and they were spot on (as everyone gives a big collective sigh of relief).
If the Apostles thought they were living in the “end times,” then instead of figuring they didn’t know what they were talking about maybe it would make more sense to think that we don’t know what we are talking about.
I know. Highly unlikely, but work with me.
You know the old saying about letting the bible interpret itself? It actually works here. The Jews didn’t just show up in history one day to hang around listening to this new sage and his followers. They actually had a history behind them that’s readily accessible even to us today. It’s called the Old Testament. When the master Teacher and his disciples taught them they made regular references to things they were all very familiar with. I’m thinking it would be good to see if this great body of literature had them conditioned to thinking a certain way.
First off, the Old Testament doesn’t talk about the end of the world. When the Jews were following Jesus and his disciples around they weren’t expecting the end of the world. They weren’t even thinking about it. It’s just not a part of Hebrew thinking.
So what might be ending that the New Testament writers were privy to, if it wasn’t the world ending?
It was the end of the Covenant. Specifically, the end of what we call the Old Covenant, the one that God made with Moses. It’s the covenant that the apostles taught was about to end and what was going to replace it was already in place – the New Covenant.
This is what Jesus’ followers expected to happen since they read about the New Covenant way back in Jeremiah 31:31. What tipped them off to the imminent end of the Old Covenant was what we can read at the beginning of Matthew 24 when Jesus walked them far enough away from the temple that they could see it all at once and then said, “This temple is going to be destroyed.” His followers asked him, “When will this happen and what’s going to be the sign of your coming and the end of the world?”
“Wait, Kirby, didn’t you say the bible doesn’t say anything about the end of the world? The rest of chapter 24 is all about that, right?”
Dang King James translation. It should be outlawed.
That phrase “end of the world” should have been translated “end of the age.” They weren’t asking about the end of the physical world, they were asking about the end of an age, the Old Covenant age. In their minds the destruction of the temple that Jesus just mentioned would be the nail in the coffin of that covenant because you can’t really follow the Law without a temple. For example, you can’t follow the Law of the Tithe if you don’t have a temple to take the tithe to because that’s what God instructed them to do with it. If you don’t have a temple you can’t really tithe. The temple was destroyed by the Romans about 40 years after Jesus said it was coming down and since that time (70 AD) the Jews have not been tithing.
Some Christians tithe to this day. Some New Covenant believers follow the Old Covenant while the Old Covenant believers (the Jews for the past 2000 years) haven’t been following the Old Covenant.
That’s ironic, isn’t it? I wonder why Christians are told to tithe today. Hmmm, maybe it has something to do with money? Oh, right, but let’s not get sidetracked.
Back to Matthew 24:3. Notice how three things are tied together in the minds of the disciples: the destruction of the temple, Jesus’ return, and the end of the Old Covenant age. This is why twenty-two statements about the return of Christ make it sound like it was going to happen in the lifetime of at least some of those people.
Because it was.
And it did.
In 70 AD.
If you’ve been saying, “This world is a mess. I sure hope the Lord returns soon,” it’s already too late. You missed it by about 2000 years. You aren’t the only one. The whole church by and large missed the Second Coming when it happened.
“How can that be?” you might ask. “That just seems sooooo unlikely. You’re telling me the whole church pretty much missed the Second Coming?”
At first blush that may seem unlikely but if you were with the crowd of 120 Christians just before the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2, which was the whole church at the time, you would be thinking that the whole Old Covenant church missed the First Coming of their Messiah so why is it so unlikely most of the New Covenant church missed the Second Coming? The Messiah has a way of showing up in ways that the pundits don’t expect. I know, it’s annoying, but Jesus is Lord so we don’t have much to say about it. If their expectations are based on prophetic scriptures there’s a pretty good chance most of them will misread them.
That’s not to say everyone missed the Second Coming. Eusebius and other historians mention that Christians definitely saw the signs and left Jerusalem. Christians after that knew Christ returned to give them relief from persecution. For their part many Jews knew who was judging them and why. Josephus, a Jewish priest and historian and one of their generals who started the war with Rome in 66 AD, stated that he felt that the judgment fell upon the Jews directly because of their persecution of the Christians. Even the Roman General Titus recognized that God was the one who delivered the Jews into His hand, and that without God’s help he would never have been able to conquer the Jews.
If this is a new way of looking at the return of Christ you will no doubt have numerous questions and objections that need to be answered. Some of those questions will be right there in Matthew 24 such as verse 14 which says the Gospel must first go out to the whole world before Jesus returns. Fortunately Paul anticipated this and explained in Colossians 1:6 that the Gospel did go out into all the world. This is so because to them the Mediterranean world was the whole world. In fact, according to Matthew, “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” That means if Paul is correct in Col. 1:6 (and we have no reason to doubt that he is) then the end had to come soon. This is why Paul said, “It is the Last Day.” They were in it. Paul also echoed this understanding of the spread of the Gospel in Rom. 10:18: “But I say, ‘Have they not heard?’ Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.”
If you have been anticipating the return of Christ then the approach given here will mean you will need a whole new way of interpreting the book of Revelation and a host of other scriptures. This will raise more questions than I can possibly answer in a blog article so I suggest taking a look at www.preterist.org. Please be assured, that for every What About you may have there is a scriptural answer.
One of those What Abouts may be, “What about my hope in Christ for a rapture?” As you begin to study this area of theology you will find yourself less likely to want to seek escape from this world and more likely to anticipate being a co-worker with Christ in his grand scheme to infiltrate the whole world with his life-changing love. That is a hope you can participate in every day, not just spend your life hoping for something to happen later. It’s a great privilege to be a part of that work.
One of the reasons eschatology, the study of the end times, is so confusing is because of the prolific use of symbols in the bible. I try to briefly make some sense of some of it by looking at a few symbols such as the Mark of the Beast, The Great Whore Babylon, and Lukewarm Lutherans in Revelation Wasn’t Written to Lukewarm Lutherans
We also tend to make a lot of assumptions when we read many scriptures which cause us to put the End Times off in our future rather than at the time of the writing of the scriptures. I challenge those assumptions in my article Wrong Assumptions About the End Times.
Dear Brother Kirby,
I have found that it isn’t unusual for arguments in the futurist vs preterist debate, to omit the third and traditional approach to Bible prophecy, of historicism. Once we consider 1900 years of Christian era history as possible fulfillment of Bible prophecy, rather than necessarily exclude it as futurists and preterists must, the book of Revelation and the rest of Bible prophecy seems to come sharply into focus.
From Christ ushering in His kingdom during the 1st century:
https://www.christianeschatology.com/futurism_dispensationalism.htm#premillennialism
To the rise of THE false prophet Muhammad’s Islamic kingdom “beast”:
https://www.christianeschatology.com/historicism.htm#kingdom_beasts
To the eventual conquest by Muhammad’s Islamic kingdom “beast”, of the prophet John’s whole “world”:
https://www.beholdthebeast.com/the_beast.htm#percent_islam
Where virtually everyone carries the name of the “beast”, suggesting the mark of the beast is a fulfilled prophecy:
https://www.christianeschatology.com/historicism.htm#mark_of_the_beast
To the restoration of YHWH’s covenant people to their land in fulfillment of so much prophecy:
https://www.zionismchristian.com/zionism_in_christianity.htm
While today even Christian children are beheaded for the witness of Jesus by the caliphate of The Islamic State:
https://www.falseprophetmuhammad.com/the_islamic_state.htm
Does it really make sense to believe this was all over and done with in the 1st century, when 1/4 of mankind in the world today are exactly and specifically antichrist as an article of their faith in THE false prophet Muhammad, are commanded to conquer and subjugate the rest of mankind to denying the crucifixion of Christ and deny that Jesus is the Son of God while rejecting the blood that He shed for us all?
https://www.falseprophetmuhammad.com/muhammad_islam_in_bible_prophecy.htm#the_conflict
That 1/4 of mankind in the world today are taught that to confess that Jesus is the Son of God, or even to pray in Jesus’ name, would be to commit the single most “heinous” and ONLY unforgivable sin in Muhammadanism, as opposed to child rape or cold blooded mass murder for example, which may be forgiven (and both of which THE false prophet Muhammad happened to be guilty of).
https://www.brotherpete.com/unforgivable_shirk.htm
All Jews and Christians are historicists when it comes to Old Testament prophecy. Have you ever wondered what a UNIFORM approach to all Bible prophecy through the TRADITION of amillennial historicism might reveal? That is, considering 1900 years of Christian era history in Bible prophecy, rather than being compelled to ignore it altogether because of an approach we have chosen.
https://www.christianeschatology.com/historicism.htm
I look forward to hearing from you Brother Kirby.
Your brother in Christ Jesus,
Pete
Pete I prefer an approach that looks for one “fulfillment” of a prophecy, but recognizes human nature doesn’t change much and history does repeat itself so we might see similar things happening again. For example, I think the Russian Orthodox Church persecuting Baptists and Pentecostals in the old USSR by going to the state and getting the police to raid, imprison, and kill Christians is a good example of a Whore (apostate Orthodox Church) riding on the Beast (civil government). If I were preaching in Russia in 1970 this would have been my message. Does it mean God would judge this Whore and Beast? Well, in that case it seems so. What about the Greek Orthodox priests today getting the state to shut down an Evangelical’s business because said Evangelical is preaching the Gospel at work? Another Whore riding on a Beast. But did or will God judge that Whore and Beast? We have no way of knowing if he will so a Historicist is in the same boat as I am, a Preterist. All I can say to my Greek brothers is let’s seek God and see what happens. With a strictly Historicist viewpoint one might be tempted to say this will be another fulfillment of those relevant Revelation prophecies when we don’t really know what God is going to do about it, if anything.
Amazing, so true.
This article is very well-explained, and I fully agree. The time statements given by Jesus and the apostles are very telling, and for years I was one who unwittingly believed they were mistaken or wrong.
By the way, I came across your site after seeing some (good) comments you left recently at Charisma Online.
Thanks Adam. It does make more sense to believe Jesus knew what he was talking about.
Here is a suggestion. Might it be that the second coming and kingdom was in fact supposed to have occurred during the lifetime of those “standing there” and yet it did not happen. Either God cancelled the second coming and the kingdom or He postponed it for a very long time due to the Jews failure to accept Jesus. The Jews did not get their kingdom and God bypassed the nation of Israel in bringing the gospel to the gentiles through the ministry of Paul. God told them how the future would come to pass and then He brought it to pass in a manner that is different than the way He told them it would come to pass as a result of their failure to accept Jesus. Remember that God told Hezekiah that he was about to die and then He brought his future to pass in a manner that was different than what He told him by adding fifteen years to his life. Most people cannot accept such thoughts due to their belief that God is incapable of changing His mind or experiencing changes in His knowledge.
I think the destruction was not predicated on their acceptance of Christ. In fact, it would make more sense to think they were in more danger of judgement for not accepting Christ, though other text say the judgement was for killing the prophets. You equate his second coming with the arrival of their kingdom but the kingdom was already present and had been since the beginning of Christ’s ministry. Many Jews entered that kingdom through Christ, many didn’t. The purpose of the second coming wasn’t to usher in a kingdom but to end the Old Covenant.
This is one of the better articulations of Preterism I’ve encountered. It appears to be the most plausible accounting for the predicted early return of Jesus that doesn’t involve him being a false prophet. I still have a couple of issues with it, though:
I can accept that not all of the Olivet discourse is meant to be taken literally; that “coming” is the language of judgement, and the the stars falling from the sky is typical apocalyptic language and doesn’t necessarily indicate the end of the world. However, in Mark 24:31, Jesus also mentions a “gathering of the elect” as part of his return. I cannot think of any way in which this was fulfilled by the destruction of the temple, and it seems like a reference to something important, not just a piece of flowery imagery.
More importantly, if you believe that the old covenant ended with destruction of the Temple, what exactly did the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus signify? Was there a period between 30 and 70 AD where there was no covenant? Were Christians before 70 AD living under the old covenant? Were there two simultaneous covenants?
Alex here’s one explanation among many, though I think it might refer to the international Roman army. The word “elect” doesn’t mean Jew or Christian, it means a chosen people. It could be the Romans were chosen for this task and therefore called elect.
The period from 30 to 70 AD I see as an overlap. The Jews who were still under Moses continued to be until 70, while the Jews and Gentiles who became followers of Christ entered into the New Covenant. Hebrews 8:13 speaks of this overlap: In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.
The timelines are all wrong. The history books have all the dates wrong also. The temple, both physical and spiritual, were destroyed at Christ’s hanging on the tree. The earthquake that happened on that very hour. The souls that were released from Gehinomm also. They were the elect gathered at Christ’s crucifixion
Thank you so much my brother! You are spot on. I came across this article just two days ago, and it echoes what I was ministering for some time. This message of ”LOVE” and not kingdom should be in the mouths of pastors and preachers everywhere. We should follow 2 Timothy2:15 and allow the Spirit of truth to guide us in our studies. Romans 8:14, you will do well to become a son of God, if we allow ourselves to be lead by his Spirit and not lean on our own understanding. God in his infinite mercy does not leave sons ignorant. Keep the Love of Jesus strong in this world as we know it today.
Thank you brother Kirby!
This is very well put and convincing, but I already believe it, I like how you put the 1,000 yr’s in 2nd Peter thanks
Thanks Kenny!
Kirby, I have studied “end time theology” for 28 years and Preterism is the only end time view that makes any biblical sense to me. I have tried numerous times to connect the “Futurist Dots” and I only get more confused each time.
My opinion is simple, take Jesus and the Biblical Writers at their word and you come to the easy conclusion that Jesus’ return took place in 70 AD and we live in the New Covenant Age of the Kingdom of God that will last for ever according to Daniel.
This view doesn’t change the gospel message, people follow or reject Christ in their life time and suffer the consequences of rejecting Him or reward of following Him after they die. It is every Christian’s job to preach and demonstrate he gospel of Jesus Christ.
Van
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life? 27 “For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. 28 Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
—Jesus of Nazareth, Gospel of Matthew 16:24-28
[During the process of my deconversion from Christianity] I came to recognize that my instinct for placing the redeemed—including apologists, the New Testament authors, and Jesus himself—in a special untouchable category was a fatal impediment to an honest search for the truth. Only after this realization could I come to terms with what should otherwise have been plain: Jesus did not return when he promised he would.
A skeptic could hardly ask for a more objective falsification of any religion: the religion’s leader prophesies a globally identifiable series of events within a specified time period, but the events do not take place within that time period. Yet Christianity did not fail after the first generation; there were already too many believers with too much at stake, and when the fuzzy boundary of one generation was passed, reason was not going to stand in the way of the movement, since reason was not the primary impetus for Christians to believe in the first place. Instead, various explanations arose to account for what appeared on the surface to be a failed set of prophecies, just as the Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses later came up with explanations for their failed prophecies.
Those who expect Jesus to return and take them to glory appear to be resting on a false hope.
—Ken Daniels, former evangelical Christian missionary in his book, “Why I Believed”
Or, perhaps, you (or Ken Daniels) have had some preconceived ideas about what that return was supposed to look like and Jesus didn’t meet your expectations.
I’ve recently learned of the preterist perspective and the bible is finally making sense! Your article is the best I’ve come across so far at getting down to the point, being concise and not talking way over my head 😉 Thank you! I have to admit to struggling with letting go of a futurist perspective, as that was what I was raised on since I was 8 years old (I’m 48 now!) and what most Christians, at least American Christians, believe. I yearn to know the truth of God’s word, not what man has turned it into after all these years based on our own “pipe dreams” for lack of a better term. I’m curious and look forward to future articles by you on this subject. Thanks again!
Thanks Robin, I’m glad it’s making sense. The more I study the bible the more of what I was taught makes less sense. We have so much to learn!
Oh, also, full or partial preterism?
I’m not really sure. I don’t have a well constructed eschatology, but then to tell you the truth, if I were to land on one side I’d be obliged to deconstruct it. It’s a lot easier for me to deconstruct than to construct.
Good stuff. I too recently came to the Preterist view after years of wondering about the verses you cited. “Bamboozled Believers” is also a great book. The hardest part for me and many other to believe is how people I have respected for some many years like John Piper be so far off on this subject! I guess the Good Lord wants to even the playing field a bit to keep all of us humble. Keep up the good work.
I had the good fortune of not being raised in the church so I didn’t have to pit those whom I trusted against what I was getting out of the scriptures. I was free to let the scriptures and alternative interpretations speak to me. I think churches would serve the people better if they just taught people how to study the Bible rather than how to defend their pet doctrines. There would be less confusion that way I think.
The only scriptures Jesus knew were Genesis to Malachi. He understood that God promised Israel an everlasting Kingdom of which he would be the king. He also knew that before his glory he would have to suffer. There are tons of verses that taught him that very thing as he studied them and grew in stature and wisdom.
From the scroll of Daniel, Jesus ascertained that the time between his first coming and his second coming would be 7 years. That is why, to the best of his knowledge, he thought some of those to whom he spoke would be alive when he returned as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
But Jesus did not know everything about his Father’s plan. Specifically he knew nothing about the administration in which we are currently living, which began on the day of Pentecost. It is a very unique time that really has no parallels in the Old Testament, including the Gospels. Grace vs. law being perhaps the most notable difference, but there are many others. Jesus knew nothing about Christians!
Fast forward a few years after Jesus ascension; God gave Paul a revelation which the King James calls “the mystery.” The Greek word (musterion) is better translated as secret. A mystery may never be understood, but a secret, once revealed can easily be understood. Paul speaks of this mystery/secret many times in his Epistles. One only need look up the word “mystery” in a concordance.
Paul, by inspiration of God, said that the mystery was kept secret since the beginning of time (Ephesians 3:4-5, et. al.). God was the only one who knew about His complete plan (the logos of John 1:1). 1 Corinthians 2:8 says that the devil would not have crucified Jesus had he known the secret. Why? Part of God’s secret plan was that all born again believers would have Christ dwelling within (Col 1:25-27). Instead of one Jesus for the devil to keep track of, he now has many millions of people filled with the same power and authority Jesus he when he lived. That must have blown the devil’s mind when Paul finally revealed the secret in his Epistles. Of course he can largely mitigate his problem by keeping Christians from a knowledge of the mystery. Judging from a virtually total lack of teaching on the subject in our churches every Sunday, he seems to be doing a pretty good job of it. I’m amazed at how the vast majority of Christians I mention the mystery to stare back at me with an inquisitive look. “The what?,” they often say.
To get to the point of why Jesus thought some of those to whom he spoke would be around at his second advent, it is simply because Jesus knew nothing about the things the mystery/secret, God revealed later to the Apostle Paul. From the only scriptures he had at hand (he of course didn’t have Paul’s epistles) , he thought he’d be back in seven years. Of course we now know that this age of grace has lasted at least 2,000 years. How much longer will it last? I have no idea and neither does anybody else.
With the only information available to Jesus, he was spot on right about his statement. I think it is that simple.
Paul seems to have the same belief as Jesus, exhorting them to godly living because Jesus would return in their lifetime:
“The time is short (sustello – to draw together, hence, to wrap up), from now on it would be wise for those who have wives to be as if they had them not.” – 1 Cor. 7:29
“And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.” – Rom. 13:11-12
“The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.” – Rom. 16:20
“These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.” – 1 Cor. 10:11
“Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another– and all the more as you see the Day approaching. . . . You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For in just a very little while, “He who is coming will come and will not delay.”” – Heb. 10:25,36-37
If it was all about the Old Covenant ending, and not the world ending … then why did Jesus preach that he was to uphold the law (Old Covenant?) and not to end it?
Good question. But he didn’t end it. His Father did. Prior to that, Jesus fulfilled it by living according to the righteous standards of the Law.
I enjoyed talking with you the other night and your passion for theology, even if we hold different views on some issues. I think ultimately belief in the gospel and an understanding that Christ’s finished work on the cross, and our faith in that work, is the only way to a forgiveness of sins and right standing with God is most important. The Lord can straighten us all out one day when our faith becomes sight.
https://alwaysbeready.com/preterism-examined-and-refuted/#fail
Hey Travis,
I read the blog post you referenced and feel that there is too much there for me to address in writing other than to bring up a few key points:
1. You will never get an accurate portrayal of something from someone who is trying to refute it. This was no exception. He does a lousy job of accurately representing what he’s trying to refute. It’s better to get it from “the horse’s mouth” if you really want to understand other positions.
2. He tends to be overly literalistic, as do all Futurists, assuming that the most literal reading of a verse is the correct one, if for no other reason than it “takes what is said at face value.” Many people in the Bible, particularly the Gospel of John take Jesus literally when they should have taken him allegorically, and end up being embarrassed (“How can I return to my mother’s womb,” or, “We must eat your flesh and drink you blood?”, for example.) I used to be a Futurist, and am also embarrassed by how literally I read things, even in Revelation, which is obviously a book of symbols.
3. One of the cardinal rules of biblical interpretation is not to ignore audience relevance, which Charlie Campbell does frequently. For example, his reading of Mt. 24:33
“Even so you too, when you see these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door. 34 Truly I say to you, this generation [What generation? the generation who, in v. 33, sees “all” those things] will not pass away until all these things take place.” Jesus is talking to people who just asked him a question, and in answering the question he says, “you”, but then at the end of his sentence he’s talking to someone else, way off in the future, possibly you or me if this happens in our lifetime? Really? He’s just going to look them in the eye and say, “you” when in reality he’s not talking to or about them at all? If Futerists are correct, then Audience Relevance has been completely ignored. They are just actors in a play to set Jesus up for what he’s really trying to say, which has nothing to do with them at all.
4. He does what many tend to do, which is go after the weaker arguments while ignoring the “big guns”. One of those big guns is what I bring out in my blog article. Did you read it? In order for the 2nd Coming to be way off in the future then one of two things must be true: either Jesus and his apostles are 1) lying to get the disciples motivated toward godly living, making them think Jesus would return in their lifetime when they knew that may not be the case, or wasn’t the case, OR, 2) Jesus and his apostles were mistaken about thinking it would happen in their lifetime.
Which do you think it is? There really are no other options.
5. He attempts to make “soon” mean “quickly at a later date”, yet nowhere in scripture do the Greek words “en takos” mean quickly at a later time. It ALWAYS means “quickly so as to accomplish an end sooner, not later.” For example, in Acts 22:17 – “And it came to pass, that, when I was come again to Jerusalem, even while I prayed in the temple, I was in a trance; and saw him saying unto me, ‘Make haste, and get thee QUICKLY (en takos) out of Jerusalem: for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me.'” Can you imagine Paul saying to the angel, “OK, I’ll take my sweet time about leaving, but when I do finally leave, I’ll do it in a hurry,” because he thinks en takos has nothing to do with soonness? Futurists really botch this word up big time.
On another note, you mentioned the “finished work of Jesus on the Cross.” Are you aware that Penal Substitutionary Atonement, which embodies “finished work” theology is a fairly recent development in Christian theology which ignores the historic paradigms for salvation that have been with us since the apostles and their successors which we call the Apostolic Fathers? You might want to peruse my blog post “Salvation byBeing Good” or read “Moral Transformation: The Original Christian Paradigm of Salvation” by Wallace and Rusk. To me issues of salvation are more important than Eschatology because how we present salvation to the world is how we portray the character of God to the world, and frankly the world can see through much of it and see it for what it is, a theology that makes God out to be a sadistic monster with no love, justice, or forgiveness in his heart.
Love all the scriptures! One cannot read that and still deny the truth. But, they do.