"Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
I thought this would be a good place to start.
Let's discuss Matthew 24. As Christ proclaims the end he ends with this paragraph. Is there any reason to believe Christ was talking about some other generation than the ones sitting there before Him? If you were in the crowd and Jesus said "this generation" do you think you would have said "Oh naturally he's not talking about my generation, he must be talking about some other generation?" I can't imagine being in front of Christ at that moment, hearing what you just heard and hearing him say that it was my generation and somehow believing he meant some other generation. I want to hear what you have to say on this John H. What do you think He meant? How would you have taken that statement. How would any of ya'll taken that statement?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
12 comments:
who said generation means a generation of people?
Also, I did not know there would be a test today, I would have crammed last night.
Caveat, before you jump off the deep end say that if I was studying the Word daily like I should or some other comment like that think for a second that my last comment may possibly have been a joke.
hahahaha!
When does generation mean something else? I've heard some explanations but they don't add up and there are too many holes in the argument. But we can discuss that if you want.
I think that the difficulty people often have with understanding the "when" of the things which Christ refers to in His cryptic language is that they forget the idea of prophesy being "right now, but not yet"; that the Word of God had direct application to the people of first century AD, and also to those of us in every generation since. When reading any passage of Scripture we MUST think in terms of the original audience. WHO was He talking to? WHEN? WHERE? WHY? In response to WHAT? Then, after we have determined these things we can move onto "what dose this mean to me today?"
Though I have not done exhaustive study here, I believe that Christ was primarily speaking to the first Christians. These people went through a lot! They met this man who claimed to be the Son of God. They thought he had come to restore God's kingdom on earth. They loved Jesus, but then they killed him. He raised Himself from death and explained everything and the people finally understood what it was all about..... However, Christ knew that these young believers would very soon undergo a great trial of their faith. Their city (Jerusalem) would be attacked and destroyed by the Roman empire. He knew that the temple would be destroyed and that the early Christians would be persecuted beyond our (in this day and age) wildest imagination. He knew that they would be killed because of their profession of faith in Christ.
This idea directs my though toward it's significance to my life today. That there really was a tribulation in ~67 AD when the temple was destroyed. More to come later.....
I agree with you so far Johnny. The implication for us in what Christ mentioned is that what he said came true. He is a faithful God.
how about the next generation of computers...that could coincide with this generation of heaven and earth will come to an end. and ipso facto everyday we wake up we are closer to the end by definition.
I agree, it is key to distinguish that "all these things" refers to all the events leading up to christs return and not the return itself. It is also key to notice phrases like "such things must happen, but the end is still to come" and " all these are the beginning of birth pains" the only phrase indicating a closely connected "when" is verse 14, which indicates that Christ will return when the gospel of the kingdom is preached to the whole world as a testimony to all nations.
This is a topic I've shied away from for a long time. I'm very excited to dig into it.
I like the "now and not yet" quality that Johnny brings up. Christ himself is the literal model for this idea, coming at a specific point in history and accomplishing something definite that also points forward (and backward, for us covenanters) to something "not yet."
(Also, I'm wary of exegeting anything too solid from one phrase. Maybe this would be a good place to discuss our view of scripture, as well, since that is a premise for our discussion here?)
I'm really not trying to exegete my argument from just this passage. I just thought it would be a good idea to start here. This is the verse that pulled me in to the whole post-mil thing. Sorry, I haven't responded in a while because I have been extremely busy. I'll follow up with all of this more as soon as I get a minute to sit down.
P.S. What exactly do you mean by our view of scripture? Do you mean generally, if we look at it literal or figurative, or specifically our view of different passages?
Post a Comment