Monday, August 13, 2018

Is The Coming of Jesus Off Schedule?


The following study on the return of Jesus Christ- that all Christians should eagerly be awaiting- is taken from the newsletter called - Watchmen, What of the Night- put out by Adventist Laymen's Foundation.

This isn't an easy read- this is meat, not milk. If you're looking for just a few soothing words, a bit of acknowledgement, a couple of paragraphs of reassurance this isn't the article you're looking for.

We know our Savior is returning of that there is no doubt. However, ever since our Lord made the prediction before He ascended to heaven people have had this expectation. Right away there were people questioning when Jesus would return. People wanted Him to return right away, and as time passed their hope either grew stronger or for some, it faded away and left them hopeless and filled with disbelief.  The same can be said for every successive generation of people- the hopeful, the steadfast, and those who give up hope. By now, thousands of years later many have given up all hope, yet not all.

We have the assurance of prophecy- all prophecy eventually coming to past- our history is the proof.

Our Savior will return of that there is not a single doubt.

The generation of those alive in 1980 will see His return. Does that mean all who were alive then will see His return? Absolutely not. What it means is some of the people in that generation WILL see our Savior's return. My Dad was alive in 1980, so was my mother, but they are both asleep in Jesus right now. I was alive in 1980 just on the verge of graduating high school. Will I be alive when our Savior returns, only God knows. I do know Anyone born in 1980 has this very real prophetic hope. Will all those born then witness Christ's return? Again no. People of all ages pass away. However, the hope is REAL, the hope is TRUTH. May God bless us and keep us in HIM, and by HIS GRACE and MERCY may we be among those alive to witness His return!

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Is The Coming of Jesus Off Schedule?

At issue here are two things: 1) The New Testament emphasis on the soon return of Jesus, and 2) The meaning of what Jesus meant by, this generation shall not pass away until all these things be fulfilled.

There can be no question, Jesus did promise the disciples just prior to His crucifixion that He would come again. The sole condition was: "If I go ... I will come again" (John 14:3). He did go, and as He went two angels reiterated the promise: "This same Jesus - shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven" (Acts 1:11). But He has not come, yet in the Book of Revelation. Jesus plainly declared, "Behold, I come quickly" (22:12) and his final words to John were, "Surely I come quickly" (22:20).

The first Christians believed - and hoped - it would be in their lifetime. Paul proclaimed the return of Jesus so vividly that many of the church he raised up in Thessalonica were troubled over what to them seemed like a delay. He had to follow his first letter with a second in which he wrote plainly:
Now I beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto Him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or he troubled, neither in spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. (II Thess. 2:1-2).

Paul then stated that certain things needed to transpire before Jesus would or could return a second time. The return of Jesus would be preceded by "a failing away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition" (v. 3).

The brief summary given by Paul to the Church in Thessalonica, was enlarged in the visions given to John on Patmos.

The controversy between good and evil which Jesus capitalized with the Cross was to continue until He would return as King of kings, and Lord of lords. (Rev. 19:11-16)

At issue, is the method of interpretation to be used in understanding "the things which must shortly come to pass" as revealed to John on Patmos.

In other words, if history is truly the response to the voice of prophecy, the historistic methodology is to be used, which Cottrell abhors. Or is some other format to be imposed upon what God has declared would be? From whose perspective and viewpoint is the "revelation" given? In the very first "unveiling" of Jesus Christ to John, He declared of Himself:
"I am he that liveth, and was dead: and behold, I am alive forevermore .... and have the keys. .. " (1:18).

What is Jesus saying? He is "alive forevermore." No longer is He operating in the time frame of earth. He died in time, but lives forevermore in eternity. When He stated to John, "I come quickly," it was from His perspective. Man can only watch the unfolding of events as prophesied, to perceive how "soon" from the perspective of time. And the methodology which permits this approach is the historistic.

We still have the second question to consider. What did Jesus mean when He responded to the inquiring disciples about the end time, "Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all these things be fulfilled"? And He confirmed it as it were with an "oath" - "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away" (Matt. 24:34-35). The other synoptic gospels - Mark and Luke - state the same thing, placing it seemingly as a summary on the whole as if one generation alone is
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involved, and that generation being theirs to whom Jesus was speaking. This cannot be for the context, in which the first major sign Jesus gave was placed, clearly points to another event and not His second coming.

We need to remember that the question asked by the disciples was two-fold: 1.) "These things" referring to the destruction of Jerusalem; and 2) "The sign of Thy coming and the end of the world." (Matt. 24:3)

The sign Jesus gave regarding "the abomination of desolation" is clearly focused as an answer to the first part of the two-fold question that was asked. After stating the "sign" Jesus adds, "Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains" (24:15-16)
This was to be followed by a period of "great tribulation" which unless shortened "there should no flesh be saved" (24:21, 22).

 But time would continue on - "Immediately after the tribulation of those days" there were to be major celestial signs, and then the return of "the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory" (24:29-30).

There is no way that a single generation - let alone the generation represented by the twelve disciples before Him - could experience all that Jesus defined would take place between that hour and His return again a second time.

How are we to understand what Jesus meant?

Consider the first question asked by the disciples - the destruction of the temple. To this question, Jesus gave the specific sign of "the abomination of desolation" standing in the holy place. There was a brief time lapse between the sign and the overthrow of Jerusalem.

Luke, taking the sign out of the prophetic symbolism used in Mark and Matthew, stated, "When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the destruction thereof is nigh." (21:20). This occurred in 66 AD, and in 70 AD, the same Roman armies returned and took the city. The question of "generation" can be answered from this prophecy and events. Did the "generation" which saw the sign live to see what that sign predicated, fulfilled? The answer is "Yes!"

During His eschatological discourse Jesus gave other specific signs - signs to be in the sun, moon and stars, as well as the "times of the nations" being fulfilled. Can the axiom established in the fulfilment of the first sign be applied to each major sign Jesus gave?

In other words: The "generation" which sees the specific sign, does not pass away until the event to which that sign points is fulfilled, or begins to be fulfilled.

After giving the counsel as how to relate to the fulfilment of the first sign - "the abomination of desolation ... standing where it ought not" (Mk 13:14) Jesus declared: "Then shall be great tribulation" (Matt 24:21). This tribulation was to be numbered in "days." Before relating the next set of signs in the heavens, Jesus stated, "Immediately after the tribulation of those days" (24:29). Having established His answer to their questions in the book of Daniel the prophet (24:15), Jesus continues to refer to the book. "Days" and "the Abomination of Desolation" are connected. What is designated, "the Abomination of Desolation" in Daniel 8, is in Daniel 7, "the little horn" who would "wear out the saints of the Most High" for "a time and times, and a dividing of times" (v. 25), or 1260 days. (See Rev. 11:3 & 12:6).

Further, "the transgression of desolation" is involved in the question asked in Dan. 8:13, and the answer given in verse 14 involves "evenings and mornings" ("many days" - 8:26).
One problem remains. How do we harmonize Luke's reporting of Jesus' answer to the disciples questions with Matthew and Mark?

The idea that Jesus taught that He would return to the generation compassed in the life span of the Twelve who sat before Him that night on Olivet was not original with Cottrell. In the Journal of the Adventist Theological Society [11/1-2 (2000), pp. 295-306] Dr. John T Baldwin on the staff of the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, discusses the question. Citing the positions of the English theologian, Matthew Tyndall, and the German theologian, Herman S. Reimarus of Hamburg, Baldwin notes the challenge these men made to the integrity of Jesus over the "generation" statement. Reimarus went so far as to call the premise of Jesus' return a "clear falsity."

In his answer to justify Jesus’ promise, Baldwin restructures a "harmony" of the synoptic Gospels seeking to bring Luke 21 into line with Matthew 24 and Mark 13. This ultimately leads to a mixing of the literal words of Jesus and His symbolic revelations given in vision to John on Patmos. You cannot put "apples and oranges" together and call them one fruit.
It is difficult to determine whether Baldwin is challenging Cottrell's position, or whether he is seeking to negate the application of the prophecy, found only in Luke, to this present time. Perhaps both, like "killing two birds with one stone."

Baldwin sets forth his premise that -
The Olivet Discourse as presented in Matthew 24, in which Jesus outlines the signs of His second coming
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in some detail, needs to be augmented with crucial information from the parallel account given in Luke 21. An initial important task is to compare the listing of the major signs as presented in each chapter which show, at first reading, an important omission in Luke's list as compared with that as given by Matthew and Mark (p. 298).

He then lists the major signs as given in Matthew and Mark:

1) The destruction of earthly Jerusalem,
2) A period of tribulation,
3) Signs in the sun and moon, and
4) The powers of heaven are shaken.

Baldwin observes: "In striking contrast to the four signs listed in Matthew and Mark, Luke apparently presents only three distinct, sequential signs which are to transpire before the coming of the Son of man. ... The apparent missing sign in Luke's account is the second sign given by Matthew and Mark, namely, the period of tribulation sign." He then asks the question - "Is the tribulation sign truly missing in Luke's account?" In the answer given, Baldwin seeks to define the Jerusalem of Luke 21:20 as the literal city destroyed in 70 AD, and the Jerusalem of verse 24 as the Heavenly Jerusalem. He then concludes that the "tribulation" period stated in Matthew and Mark is "the times of the Gentiles" as given in Luke.

The first problem is that there is no evidence within the text - Luke 21:20-24 - that Jesus shifted meanings for "Jerusalem" from the earthly to the heavenly. To so conclude is merely an assumption. It would contribute to a clearer understanding of Luke 21:24 if the word, eqnh were consistently translated "nations" as sense so requires in its first use in the verse. The verse would then read:
And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations (eqnh): and Jerusalem shall he trodden down of the nations (eqnwn - genitive), until the times of the nations(eqnwn) be fulfilled.

This translates this verse consistent with the verse which follows -"upon earth distress of nations (eqnhn)" [ver. 25]. Further, Luke discusses the destruction of Jerusalem prior to the Olivet discourse which finds no parallel in either Matthew or Mark. In recording the words of Jesus, he uses the word, kairoV the "time of thy visitation" meaning probationary time (Luke 19:41-44). Now in Luke 21:24, he chooses the same word, and applies it to the "nations." The probation for the Jewish nation as the chosen people of God ended in 34 AD; the "times of the nations" would end when Jerusalem was restored to the control of a Jewish state. Dr. J R. Zurcher has well stated it. He wrote in his book, Christ of the Revelation:
I believe that the times of the Gentiles began in 34 AD when the prophetic seventy weeks that God set aside for the people of Israel ended. The baptism of the first "heathens" - the Ethiopian eunuch and the centurion Cornelius - as well as the conversion of Paul as the apostle to the Gentiles mark the beginning of these new times when the gospel would be preached to the nations. And if I have understood the prediction of Jesus properly, this time will be "fulfilled" when Jerusalem will cease "to be trodden down of the Gentiles." The fact that since 1967 Gentiles no longer occupied Jerusalem means, therefore, that we are now living at the end of "the times of the Gentiles."(p. 72).

The text by which Baldwin seeks to equate the prophecy of Jesus concerning "the times of the Gentiles" in Luke with the "tribulation" period noted in the other two Synoptics is Revelation 11:1-2. It reads:
And there was given me a reed like a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.

This is symbolic language and connects with other symbolic language in the book of Revelation. "The temple of God" and "the forty two months" connect it with the "beast" of Revelation 13 who opens "his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, and His tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven (13:5-6). There is no question but that this association of texts places them parallel with the "tribulation" period as noted in both Matthew and Mark. The missing link is the justification of equating "Jerusalem" in Luke 21:24 with the "holy city" of Revelation 11:2. The "holy city" in Revelation is defined as "the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven" (21:2).

There is no question that the "abomination of desolation" in Daniel "cast down the truth to the ground, and it practised, and prospered" (8:12). This does connect the prophetic description of Revelation 11, and words in "Daniel the prophet" with the "days" of tribulation, Jesus spoke about on Olivet. However, it is equally beyond question, that there is no evidence to recognize the
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"Jerusalem" in Luke 21:20, as the literal city, and the "Jerusalem" of Luke 21:24 as "the holy city" in Heaven.

By recognizing the obvious in what Jesus said, and applying the axiom confirmed by the first sign that Jesus gave in regard to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, Luke's unique difference from Matthew and Mark, speaks to us today.

When Luke listed the sign which would mark the answer to the first part of the twofold question asked by the disciples, he quotes Jesus as saying, "When ye shall see ... then know the desolation is nigh" (v. 20). He again uses this same phraseology, when prefacing the statement, "This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled."

Let us follow through progressively Luke's report of the words of Jesus. Follow carefully with your Bibles open to these verses (20-33). Noting "the days of vengeance" that would befall Jerusalem with the scattering of those who survived as captives "into all nations," Jesus is quoted as saying that "'Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the nations until the times of the nations be fulfilled" (v. 24). [We shall translate the one word, eqnh, used in verses 24 and 25 four times, as "nations." The KJV translates the word twice as "nations" and twice as "Gentiles."]

After covering the events involving the city of Jerusalem, Luke briefly notes that there "shall be signs in the sun, moon, and stars without giving any details as found in both Matthew and Mark, then quickly returns to "'the nations" - "upon earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the seas and the waves roaring" (v. 25). Here "symbolism" is used, borrowed from the book of Daniel -"'the four winds of heaven strove upon the great sea" (7:2). Then follows a series of designations - "those things," "these things" - all connected with "upon earth." Observe carefully:

Verse 26 - '"Men's hearts failing them for fear and for looking as those things which are coming on the earth. Verse 28 - "And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh."

A parable from the fig tree is given, and then the admonition: "So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand" (v. 31). Why?

"Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled." (v. 32).

From Luke's analysis of what Jesus said on the Mount of Olives, a connection can be drawn between the sign of the close of the probation of the nations - Jerusalem returned to the control of Israel, and the "generation" that would not pass away till all be fulfilled.

In the twenty-first chapter of Luke, Christ foretold what was to come upon Jerusalem, and with it He connected the scenes which were to take place in the history of the world just prior to the coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

Mark the words: "Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and the cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man."

This is a warning to those who claim to be Christians. Those who have had light upon the important testing truths for this time, and yet are not making ready for the Son of man, are not taking heed. …

Only by being clothed with the robe of Christ's righteousness can we escape the judgments coming upon the earth. Let all remember that these words were among the last that Christ gave His disciples. If this instruction were often repeated in our papers and publications, and less space were taken for matter which is not one hundreth part so important, it would be more appropriate. In these sacred, solemn warnings the danger signal is lifted. It is this instruction that the church members and the people of the world need; for it is present truth. (Letter 20, 1901)

From <http://www.adventistlaymen.com/WWN%20Text%20Versions/wwn9%2802%29.htm>

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