Is The Timing Of Jesus Second Coming Ambiguous?
Posted: Saturday, November 29, 2008
by Joel Hendon
http://hebronics.org/index.html
I had a person ask the following question: Why did Jesus seem to indicate that his second coming was going to occur during the generation of his disciples?
There is a great deal of confusion concerning this question, and I don't believe there should be. But, I do see why people come to the conclusion about it that they do. I plan to lay out my thoughts concerning it, and I believe with all my heart they are correct, yet I know from previous efforts that many will not accept my view. That is alright. I won't feel hard or hurt at you for it, but I do ask the same respect from you towards me. Once the point is clearly seen, it becomes very convincing, but it is difficult for some to grasp it. Most of the confusion comes from Matthew 24.
Now let us delve into these verses before we go further. Jesus had just come from inside the temple where he was laying a real tongue lashing upon the hypocritical Jews (It would be well for the reader to read chapter 23). His followers wanted him to see the magnificence of this great structure which was truly a wonder. We need desperately to understand what the temple meant to the Jews. It was almost like a god in itself. It represented God's dwelling place among the Jewish people because, to begin with, it actually was their place to worship God and for the high priest to actually communicate with Him.
Originally, King Solomon was authorized to, and did, build the first magnificent temple in Jerusalem, strictly in accordance to the instructions of God, Himself. King David, Solomon's father, was not allowed by God to construct the temple because he was a man of war and had shed much blood. Nevertheless, he made many of the preparations for it's construction which can be found in First Chronicles chapter 22. Solomon began construction in his fourth year as king and it took seven years to complete. It was a massive undertaking...read this:
"Then King Solomon raised up a labor force out of all Israel - and the labor force was thirty thousand men . . . Solomon selected seventy thousand men to bear burdens, eighty thousand to quarry stone in the mountains, and three thousand six hundred to oversee them." (1 Kings 5:13; 2 Chronicles 2:2).It was completed in 960 BC, destroyed in 586 BC when the Babylonians took Israel into captivity. But after 70 years, 516 BC, they were allowed to return and rebuild the temple. It was never really the same and was plundered and pillaged several times by invading armies. Even after the Israelite kingdom divided and became known as Israel (Northern kingdom in Samaria) and Judah (Southern kingdom which remained in Jerusalem) the city and temple remained the focal point of the devout Jews and even those some distance away, traveled there to worship annually.
David had conquered Jerusalem and had designated it as his city. It, along with the temple became the symbolic connection between God and the Israelite nation. The Jewish people viewed the city and temple almost as though they were gods. It actually represented the Jewish polity and is often referred to as such. When the Romans came to power over the entire area, the temple was in shambles and had been pillaged often. But around the beginning of the first century A. D., Herod rebuilt the temple even more glorious than it was in the beginning.
Now, this is the setting as we started our article where Jesus and the disciples were discussing the temple and Jesus prophesied that it would be destroyed and one stone would not be left upon another. Now, those stones he was referring to were enormous sized marble which were used for foundations and walls. Some compare their size to that of a city bus or streetcar. Keeping these enormous blocks of marble in mind and the weight of such, re-read the scripture above (Matthew 24:1-2). It would be difficult to believe that not one would be left on top of another.
Jesus was prophesying in that scripture, the coming destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, which did actually occur in AD 70. Let us now read the questions asked by the disciples and the answers given to them by Jesus.
And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not." (Matthew 24: 3-23)
Now almost all who read the above verses are convinced that Jesus is talking about His second coming. He is not. He is discussing his return insofar as to destroy the temple as well as Jerusalem itself, and thus symbolically destroying the Jewish nation, ending His connection with the Jews through the Old Covenant or Testament, having established His new covenant with all men who through obedience become the true seed of Abraham. There is to be no more Jew nor Greek but all nations will be joined together in Christ. The abomination of desolation He mentions is the warning of the horrible slaughter and destruction brought upon them. He is warning His followers, those who will become Christians soon, to flee the city when they see the siege taking place. If you will go back now and read this long block of scriptures with this in mind you will see that it does fit the occasion and could not have been referring to the final end of the world. Now read verse 34 "Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled." this proves that it was to come soon, in fact about 38-40 years later.
It is difficult to reconcile some of the verses to that of the occasion since Jesus does inject some symbolic rhetoric into the speech. Verses 27 through 33 are rather difficult, but He refers to the leaders of the Jewish counsel (the Sanhedrin) and the high priests, etc. In verse 29 when he says the sun shall be darkened and the moon shall not give her light and the stars shall fall from heaven. The nation of Israel ceased to exist. Their records were destroyed and those today are unable to trace their lineages even to know from which tribe they are descended.
Refer now back to verse three. Perhaps the disciples, in asking the three distinct questions, thought they were asking about the same singular event. But the first two questions were, to Jesus, referring to the coming destruction of Jerusalem and the last phrase to the event of His final appearance to claim His children and at which time the physical universe will cease to exist. So he spends all these verses in answering the first two question concerning the fall of the Jewish nation, through verse 34. Then in verse 35, takes up the last question with a simple answer: " Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only."
There are other scriptures which depict the second coming of Jesus and there are no such circumstances surrounding it as that which Jesus tells in the 24 th chapter of Matthew.
2 Peter 3:10 says: " But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up." There will be nothing left but the spiritual realm.
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 says: " For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord."
The last phrase of that last verse is my most favorite words in the Bible.
May God bless us as we study His word.
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Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)Joel, many verses used and many left out."When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (who so readeth, let him understand:)" yes and right now the Jews are prepared to build that Temple, fact. All they need is a peace treaty and that my friend may come very soon. I use the word "may". What about "Peace and Security"? Are believers warned that we should not be cought unawares? While we must remeber we are working with God's time line not ours you omitted a key " You shall know when it is "even at the door". Great job as usual. I for one will continue to look up.Robert, thanks for commenting. I still say that those words were warning those of His following of the massacre and destruction of Jerusalem. Israel will never be "His people" again, only those that come to Him through Jesus Christ, and they aren't doing it.Only when they look upon Him who they pierce will they know. Yet it is his covenant with Israel that will bring about the end because they are the ones who will rebuild the temple, no one else. They are the ones who will sign the peace with the Arabs. They are the ones living in "un-walled cities". Interesting times and these matters have been discussed for 2000 yeas and still are. Best wishes.
thought I'd add this as well4 but you brothers are not in darkness so that this day shall surprise you like a thief 5 you are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to darkness. 6 So then, let us not be like others , who are asleep, but let us be alert and self controlled, etc
King James Version. 1st Thessalonians. Chapter 5.
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