WHICH ASPECTS OF THE TEACHING OF JESUS ON THE MT OF OLIVES REFER TO THE SECOND COMING? 3. (Matthew 24; compare Mark 13; Luke 21) WHAT DID JESUS MEAN IN MATTHEW 24:34 (Mark 13:30; Luke 21:32)? He says: “Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.” This seems to say that all that Jesus had foretold would happen in the first generation – between AD30 and AD70. Some people have translated the word “generation” as “race” meaning this “race” – the Jewish people – will not pass away until all is fulfilled. But the word normally refers to the literal present generation and is often described as an evil generation. However, Luke probably wrote some 30 years after Jesus died when the ‘present generation’ would have been ‘passing away’ so it is unlikely he would have understood the current generation to be meant by the term ‘this generation.’ Is Jesus therefore referring to the generation that experiences the beginning of the late (non-recurring) signs of the Return of Christ and saying all the great events including the Return itself will happen within one generation? One thing is clear, in view of all I have written in this 3-part post, I don’t believe Jesus was referring to his own (AD30-70) generation. It raises far greater difficulties to say he did.
Posted on: Thu, 23 May 2013 16:56:03 +0000
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