Preterism is not an easy Biblical interpretation to accept because it challenges our fundamental understanding of the future. If Jesus already came back, what’s left in our future? How are we to understand evil’s continuing existence now that Christ has returned?
While I attempt to find some answers that bring hope to the question of evil’s continued existence and our role now in my article The Growing Kingdom, behind this problem is an even greater one, our denial of Jesus’s words. It’s easy to say, “Well Jesus didn’t return because no one saw it. Dead bodies never came out of the ground. There’s still evil in the world.” As the famous C. S. Lewis says:
the first Christians have been proved to be false. It is clear from the New Testament that they all expected the Second Coming in their own lifetime. And, worse still, they had a reason, and one which you will find very embarrassing. Their Master had told them so. He shared, and indeed created, their delusion. He said in so many words, ‘this generation shall not pass till all these things be done.’ And he was wrong. He clearly knew no more about the end of the world than anyone else” (The World’s Last Night: And Other Essays, p. 97)
We accept this answer because it keeps us from having to deal with the challenging implications the opposite presents. But this answer creates a much bigger problem than “why is there still evil.” It attacks the very credibility of Christianity itself.
Deuteronomy 18:20-22 But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ 21 And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’— 22 when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.
Are we to fear Jesus or regard him with any reliability? If so, he could not speak a false prophecy in the name of the Lord. It would be dishonest to say Jesus gave no timeframe of when his return should happen:
Matthew 24:34 Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.
The events Jesus describes preceding this verse concerning his second coming are promised to occur within “this generation.” What exactly is meant by these words is the subject of this article.
Matthew 16:27-28 For the Son of Man is about to come in the glory His Father, with His angels, and then He will give to each according to his deeds. Truly I say to you, there are some of those standing here who shall not taste of death until they have seen the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.
Jesus promises he was “about” to come in glory with His angels before all of his disciples had died.
Luke 21:35-36 For it will come on all those who live on the face of the whole earth. Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.
Jesus prophesies the preceeding cataclysmic, world shaking events and second coming are “about to happen” and that they should be watching for and praying they will escape it. Why? Presumably because it will directly impact them.
Matthew 10:23 You shall not finish going through the cities of Israel, until the Son of Man comes.
Jesus tells his disciples they would not have time to warn everyone in Israel before he returns.
Matthew 26:64 “You have said it yourself,” Jesus answered. “But I say to all of you, from now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
Jesus addresses the Pharisees directly and warns them that they themselves would see the Son of Man returning on the clouds.
Luke 21:22 These are days of vengeance, in order that all things which are written may be fulfilled.
Jesus seems to promise that all the prophesies written in the Old Testament were going to be fulfilled in “these days.”
As Christians, we are taught to love the truth and use the intelligence God gave us to come to reasonable conclusions about things. We should be able to come up with reasonable interpretations for these verses or let them challenge our existing viewpoint. It’s discouraging how quickly we will resort to “No one can know for sure, so why question it?” It’s even more discouraging when our attempts to make sense of these passages are disingenuous or lead to increasingly desperate, unlikely, and contrived interpretations. Intellectual athiests are quick to pounce on these contrived answers and ridicule our faith over them. These verses question our loyalty to the truth and whether or not they make us uncomfortable, they are essential to the credibility of our faith.
A prophecy is judged by time
The Bible commands us to judge a prophecy by time if a time frame was given for the prophecy. If the time passed and nothing happened, that meant that prophecy was void.
when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken
If a prophecy could always happen and will forever be valid then there would be no way to test if it was reliable or not. When God prophesied the destruction of Nineveh, they repented of their sins and God did not bring the destruction he said he would have on them during the time (Jonah 3:10).
Jonah 3:4 On the day Jonah entered the city, he shouted to the crowds: “Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!”
Now imagine if the 41 days had passed and nothing had happened and yet the people were still saying, “It could still happen any moment!” While they probably had the fear of God in them, they no longer feared their immediate destruction because the 40 days had passed and they were not destroyed.
God takes time seriously
Ezekiel prophesied a near destruction of Jerusalem in his day.
Ezekiel 7:6-8 The end has come! The end has come! It has roused itself against you. See, it comes! 7 Doom has come upon you, upon you who dwell in the land. The time has come! The day is near! There is panic, not joy, on the mountains. 8 I am about to pour out my wrath on you and spend my anger against you.
However, some of the false prophets ignored the promised timing and said it wouldn’t come to pass. God rebuked them for not paying attention to his timing.
Ezekiel 12:21-28 21 And the word of the Lord came to me: 22 “Son of man, what is this proverb that you have about the land of Israel, saying, ‘The days grow long, and every vision comes to nothing’? 23 Tell them therefore, ‘Thus says the Lord God: I will put an end to this proverb, and they shall no more use it as a proverb in Israel.’ But say to them, The days are near, and the fulfillment of every vision. 24 For there shall be no more any false vision or flattering divination within the house of Israel. 25 For I am the Lord; I will speak the word that I will speak, and it will be performed. It will no longer be delayed, but in your days, O rebellious house, I will speak the word and perform it, declares the Lord God.”
26 And the word of the Lord came to me: 27 “Son of man, behold, they of the house of Israel say, ‘The vision that he sees is for many days from now, and he prophesies of times far off.’ 28 Therefore say to them, Thus says the Lord God: None of my words will be delayed any longer, but the word that I speak will be performed, declares the Lord God.”
The destruction of Jerusalem occured a few years after these words. This was put in the scriptures to show us that God wants us to take him seriously when he gives a timeframe and the prophecy must come to pass within its promised timeframe to be inspired.
So what does Jesus mean?
So then how are we to understand Jesus’s promise to return in their generation? I can see only 5 ways we can explain it:
- Jesus made a false prophecy or lied
- He made an incorrect guess
- God’s plans were thwarted
- We misunderstood him
- He is telling the truth.
Let’s look at why the first four scenarios are untenable.
Did Jesus lie?
To lie is to intentionally give a false statement. The Bible makes it clear that Jesus could not lie:
Isaiah 53:9 “He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.”
1 Peter 2:22 “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.”
Jesus received his words from God (John 12:49-50) who also cannot lie.
Numbers 23:19 “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?”
Therefore, if Jesus was divinely inspired, if he was without sin, if he in fact was God, then he could not have lied about the timing.
But, what if he was just guessing when the end would come? At least then he wouldn’t be lying.
Did Jesus guess?
Could Jesus have been making a guess? He does say only God would know when the end would occur.
Matthew 24:36 But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
If Jesus says he didn’t know for sure, then why would we trust his “guess?” However we must ask, why would someone who said they had no idea when the end would come use such force in their guess?
Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.
This does not sound like the language of someone who is making a guess. Jesus swears he is telling the truth, “Truly,” he says. “I tell you,” he follows, telling us that what he is saying is reliable, not his mere guess or suggestion. He does not say, “may not pass away” but says it “certainly will not pass away.” On top of that, in the following verse he adds,
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”
By no stretch of the imagination can we say Jesus is making a guess. He is saying his words and timing are more reliable than heaven and earth itself passing away.
Only an insane person or a liar would swear to be telling the truth and promise in powerful terms that his information was reliable when he knew it may not be. We’ve already proven that Jesus could not have lied and been God. By the same token, he could not have been insane and been God. And he was a Rabbi, which meant he excelled in his studies, the equivalent of earning a PHD degree today. His actions and achievements throughout his life do not have the markings of an insane person.
In addition, everything Jesus spoke he says was given to him by God himself:
John 12:49-50 For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken. I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.”
By Jesus’s own words, he would not have been making a guess unless the Father had told him to make a guess. If God, knowing the time of the end, told Jesus to communicate it would happen in that generation, then that means one of three things:
- God told Jesus to lie to us.
- God initially planned for it to happen soon but his plans were thwarted.
- God was telling Jesus to say the correct timeframe. He was not merely making a guess, he knew confidently the generation in which it would happen. It could happen any day in that generation, but it would have happened before that generation passed away.
Clearly, Jesus was not insane and was not making a guess. While he didn’t know the day or hour, he did know the season and timeframe it would arrive.
Were God’s plans thwarted?
While it is true that when God makes a threat or offers a blessing, human behavior can determine whether he follows through with his threat or offer (Jeremiah 18:5-10), when God swears he will do something, he always fulfills what he promised to do, regardless of human behavior (Numbers 23:19).
God cannot break his oaths
God says that at righteous person keeps his oaths even when it hurts.
Psalm 15:1-2, 4 O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart… who swears to his own hurt and does not change;
Psalm 24:4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear deceitfully.
Is God a righteous person? Then would he not keep his vows even when they hurt? When the Israelites were conquering the promise land, they made an oath not to harm the Gibeonites (Joshua 9:3-21). They feared breaking their oath lest “wrath be upon us, because of the oath that we swore to them” (Joshua 9:20). Later, king Saul broke their oath and God cursed their land with famine for 3 years:
2 Samuel 21:1-2 During the reign of David, there was a famine for three successive years; so David sought the face of the Lord. The Lord said, “It is on account of Saul and his blood-stained house; it is because he put the Gibeonites to death.”
2 The king summoned the Gibeonites and spoke to them. (Now the Gibeonites were not a part of Israel but were survivors of the Amorites; the Israelites had sworn to spare them, but Saul in his zeal for Israel and Judah had tried to annihilate them.)
Jephthah understood the consequences of keeping his vows and even put his only daugher to death because of his poorly chosen vow.
Judges 11:30-31,34-35 And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord and said, “If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, 31 then whatever comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites shall be the Lord’s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.”
34 Then Jephthah came to his home at Mizpah. And behold, his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and with dances. She was his only child; besides her he had neither son nor daughter. 35 And as soon as he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, “Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low, and you have become the cause of great trouble to me. For I have opened my mouth to the Lord, and I cannot take back my vow.”
If God says a righteous person keeps their oaths and if he says he himself is righteous, then that means God must keep his oath even if it hurts. We also see evidence that God took even human oaths very seriously and punished them for breaking them. How could God hold them to this standard if he does not exhibit the same behavior for us?
Hebrews 6:17-18 So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.
So Hebrews tells us tell us that God keeps his oaths because if God makes an oath not to change his mind and he cannot lie, then the promise is guaranteed.
Sworn prophecies can never be undone because if so, it would make all of prophecy useless or God a liar. For if God initially made an inescapable plan and swore it would happen long in advance then he was showing the certainty that it would happen. However, if something happened that God did not expect and that something thwarted his plans, then it means God can’t really tell the future. It means God failed to see that his own plans would be thwarted and would render all prophecy unreliable. How can you trust a God to tell you the future who can’t foresee the future?
God promised to return in their generation without delay
Jesus swore to us that his return would happen in that generation, “Truly I tell you,” he says and “Heaven and Earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” Paul tells us that God had promised to return soon and without delay and that the day of judgement was “fixed,” it was not in limbo:
Hebrews 10:36-37 For you have need of endurance, so that, having done the will of God, you may receive the promise. For “Yet in a very while little, the One coming will come, and will not delay.“
Acts 17:31 because He set a day in which He is about to judge the world in righteousness by a man whom He appointed, having provided a guarantee to all, having raised Him out from the dead.”
The angel in the book of revelation also swore that Jesus’s coming would not be delayed.
Revelation 10:6 And he swore by Him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and everything in it, the earth and everything in it, and the sea and everything in it: “There will be no more delay!
The disciples were promised Jesus would return within their generation. When Revelation was written, that generation was coming to a close and the Christians were getting anxious about when the event would finally happen. As Revelation 10:6 describes, there would be no more delay. Though God waited till the end of that generation to act he indeed would do what he promised before it closed.
Since the angel and Jesus swore he would return soon, in that generation, with no delay then it becomes impossible to say that God delayed this promise two-thousand or more years. To do so would be to call God a liar or else say he cannot really tell the future. Holding this view would be detrimental to God’s integrity and the Christian faith.
Did we misunderstand him?
But what if we are misunderstanding Jesus? What if he didn’t intend to mean it would happen soon?
For that matter, when a historical figure says something difficult to understand, one method we can use to understand him/her is to look at how the people around him understood his words since the listeners have direct access to the context and culture the words were spoken in. If the speaker is articulate and if everyone listening understands to the words in the same way, it’s generally safe to assume that’s what that figure meant to communicate.
Jesus was articulate and cared that his disciples accurately understood him since they would be the next message bearers. Even when he spoke in parables, he would explain the meaning to them, hoping they would eventually understand. It’s safe to conclude that if the disciples all understood Jesus to mean he would return soon, then that’s what Jesus mean to communicate. We can look at the disciples’ beliefs and actions to see how they understood Jesus’s statement.
But first let’s consider the two prominent interpretations scholars have derived from Jesus’s words and some of their interpretative problems:
1. This generation means the generation that sees these signs
Let’s suppose Jesus meant that some future generation that sees these signs would not pass until they all happened as many scholars argue:
Truly I tell you, this generation [that sees these signs] will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.
In essence, they imply that Jesus was saying, “These events could happen anytime, but when they do they will occur within a 40 year timespan.” However, remember the question Jesus is answering:
Matthew 24:1-3 Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. 2 “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”
3 As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”
Jesus was not asked to answer how long such a series of events would take to complete whenever they do happen, he is answering the question of when would he come and destroy the temple. If this is the case, the “hidden” meaning of “this generation” becomes quite obvious. In what generation did the temple fall? Was it some future generation that saw those signs? No it was that present living generation that saw the temple’s fall. Demonstrably, Jesus was answering both his disciples’s questions in the same breath. This present living generation would witness the fall of the temple and his second coming, “all of these things,” not “some of these things” would occur in that timespan. So if Jesus promised he would return and destroy the temple in that generation and the temple did indeed fall in that generation, wouldn’t that mean he also came?
A. Is The Olivet Discourse Divided?
Some futurists argue that only the prophecy concerning the temple’s fall was promised to occur in that generation, but there is an invisible separation in Jesus’s words and that the section concerning his coming is talking about our future. However, this would negate Matthew’s words that Jesus’s coming would occur immediately after the days of tribulation.
Matthew 24:29-30 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
Mark 13:24,26 But in those days, following that distress… 26 At that time people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.
Matthew 24:15-28 and Luke 21:20-24 and Mark 13:14-23 are parallel accounts of the days of tribulation and Luke says these days would occur when “you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies” (Luke 21:20) and commanded them to flee the city and go into the mountains (Luke 21:21). Now before you ask, “what if the days of tribulation are in our future?” Eusebius tells us that “all those who believed in Christ” fled from Jerusalem to Pella (a desert, mountain region) before the war “Christ having instructed them to leave Jerusalem and retire from it on account of the impending siege” (Ecclesiastical History 3.5.3, Panarion 30:2, de Mens. et Pond., 15, Haer 29:7). The Christians of the first century saw the armies surround their city and because of the words Jesus prophesied they fled the city in obedience and spared themselves from it’s destruction. This certainly seems like they applied those words to their time.
B. Luke connects the fall of the temple with God’s coming
In fact, in Luke specifically connects the fall of the temple with God’s coming:
Luke 19:41,44 As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it… 44 They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”
In 70AD, when the fires were blazing in Jerusalem, the flames melted the gold in between the stones in the temple. The Romans wanted the gold so they disassembled the temple stone by stone until not one was left on the other. This is the time Luke describes as “God’s coming to you.”
If Jesus’s coming is connected with the fall of the temple in Luke 19, why would his coming in Matthew 24 and Luke 21 not be connected with the fall of the temple in that generation? What justification do we have to separate these events? One into their near future and another towards the end of time?
C. That generation saw those signs, so it must not have passed
But consider another argument, if we say the generation that sees these signs will not pass until he has returned and if that existing generation saw all those signs, then we must believe they didn’t pass until Jesus returned. We also have strong reasons to believe that generation did see all the signs Jesus prophesied. Throughout Acts and the New Testament Letters we see evidence of the Christians witnessing the signs Jesus said would immediately proceed the end. Furthermore, Josephus and others record every sign Jesus prophesied being fulfilled in that generation. You can take a detailed look at historical studies to verify all these events happened just as Jesus prophesied. John under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit said he was experiencing the last hour signs (Matthew 24:22-29) and attributes this to Jesus’s near return:
1 John 2:18 Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour.
The Christians were experiencing the false prophets Jesus said would be a sign just before his arrival. Did the disciples under the inspiration of the Spirit misread these most obvious and undeniable signs? Since John admits in Holy Spirit inspired text that he was seeing those signs we must believe his generation did not pass before Jesus returned.
To argue Jesus did not return we must believe that the disciples who were under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit misread the most obvious and undeniable signs. We must also argue that “all these things” means “some of these things.” Do we reduce the credibility of our faith to such verbal gymnastics?
2. This generation means this Hebrew or evil race
Some evidence exists in a few non-biblical writings of that time that the word generation was used to mean “race.” So could Jesus have been saying “this race” will not pass away until he returns? Such a translation would have a meaning that is so insignificant is would be entirely unworthy of saying. How can Jesus sensibly be answering his disciples about when the end would happen by saying this race wouldn’t expire beforehand? Did the disciples expect the Hebrew race to expire? Did they expect that “evil generation” to expire before Jesus returned? On the contrary, they would have understood that the Hebrew race would never expire:
Jeremiah 31:36 “Only if these decrees vanish from my sight,” declares the Lord, “will Israel ever cease being a nation before me.”
And they would have known from Jesus’s own words that evil would not disappear before he returned, it would worsen (Matthew 10:21-23, 2 Timothy 3:1-5). So the disciples neither expected the Hebrew race nor that hypothetical evil generation to disappear before he returned.
Jesus timing his arrival by using such language would be utterly senseless, they would have no better of an idea of when it would happen as when before Jesus spoke and Jesus was not a senseless person. Also, if Jesus meant this Hebrew race will not pass away until all these things happened, this means the Hebrew race will pass away after Jesus returns.
Now some will say that this statement is not a timing statement at all, it’s referring to the fact that Jesus wanted them to know that evil would continue to exist before he arrived. But no one uses such strong language to convince a sensible person of something that is already blatantly obvious. He had just made it abundantly clear that evil would play a role in the signs leading up to his coming (Mark 13:12-13,22). Could the disciples have had any reasonable doubt that evil would continue to exist before Jesus arrived so that he would need to convince them in powerful terms?
Mark 13 “12 Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. 13 Everyone will hate you because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.
30 Truly I tell you, this [evil race] will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.
It would be one thing if Jesus said, “Unfortunately evil will continue to exist until I return.” But he swears by his own authority, “Truly I tell you.” Jesus is swearing by his authority and using such strong language because he wants to convince his disciples of something they would have had some temptation to doubt. And if the disciples had any sense and had just heard Jesus say brother would betray brother to death just before the end they would never have considered evil not existing. Thus, Jesus using such language would be utterly senseless.
Jesus uses this word “generation” in its most natural sense everywhere else. The Greek language contains a separate word for race or kind, “genos” as used in 1 Peter 2:9, “you are a chosen race.” However, the word used in Matthew 24:34 is “genea,” which is always translated as the present living generation throughout the entire New Testament and is never used as a kind or species (Preterist Approach to the Book of Revelation: Interview with Bruce Gore). If Jesus had meant to communicate that “this race” would not pass before he returned, why would he not have used the word genos instead?
“All that is about to happen” and “this generation”
Luke 21 is the parallel passage to Matthew 24. In it, Jesus describes the same spectacular end time events we are familiar with and concludes with:
Luke 21:32-33 “Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. 33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
But then he adds:
34 “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap. 35 For it will come on all those who live on the face of the whole earth. 36 Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.”
The word “is about” is the Greek word “mellonta” and several but not all translations include this word in their translation though it is included in the original Greek manuscript. This means all the things Jesus described were both about to happen and would occur in that generation. With two time statement qualifiers “this generation” and “about to happen” reinforcing each other, it becomes exceedingly more difficult to believe Jesus has a people living thousands of years in the future in mind. If we are to trust time qualifiers at all, then the term “about to” defines what Jesus meant by “this generation.” It was the generation that Jesus was speaking to.
Can we trust time qualifiers?
However, the question arises, “Can we trust time qualifiers at all?” Many people will argue that in God’s sight a day is like a thousand years, a view derived from 2 Peter 3:8-9. This is taken to mean that when God says something is “soon to happen,” “about to happen,” “without delay,” then it is “soon in God’s sight” allowing the near event to happen tomorrow or thousands of years later.
Throughout the New Testament, Jesus and the disciples repeatedly and emphatically state that his coming was near and about to occur and would come without delay. We know they wanted us to take this message to heart and trust it because of the force and repetitiveness of these statements. But if by “soon” and “about to” and “without delay” God meant possibly thousands of years in the future according to his sight, what possible meaning would that have to us? I can think of no reason why God would communicate so emphatically in the form of a promise something that would have no relevance or meaning to us. I will be long gone before thousands of years pass. Was this the message he so forcefully wanted us to understand?
However, if we take the approach that God secretly meant soon in his sight but intended us to think of it as soon in our sight, perhaps so we would prepare ourselves, then that means Jesus and the disciples intentionally deceived us. It would not happen soon, it would happen very long off and far into the future, but we are led to believe it will be soon. This is lying, and something God cannot do.
There is no point in saying something that has no meaning or relevance. It is even more absurd to use the strong language of a promise for something that means absolutely nothing:
Hebrews 10:36-37 For you have need of endurance, so that, having done the will of God, you may receive the promise. For “Yet in a very while little, the One coming will come, and will not delay.“
If a “little while” can mean thousands of years, why add the word “very” in front of it? That word is in the Greek, “hoson”. Does emphasizing how very few thousands of years it could be make any difference to us? And what would it mean that it will come without delay? Am I supposed to take comfort in the fact that instead of many thousands of years it will only be a few thousand years? These statements had to mean something to the people to whom it was addressed. It was serving to bring comfort to their distressing situation. But what comfort would such verses bring if the listeners would never experience that comfort in their lifetimes? If you are thrown in prison for your faith and Paul comes to you and says, “Don’t loose heart! Jesus will return in only a few thousand years to rescue you!”, how would you feel?
It is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire. (II Thess. 1:6-7)
Did the apostles and Christians ever get their promised relief? Were they promised Jesus would come soon and deliver them but he never showed up? Would Paul have given this word of hope if he knew Jesus may or may not show up in their generation? Were these Christians given false words of comfort? If so, what do you make of your faith? Does God give you false comfort and promises?
When God has communicated with the prophets he has communicated time in their terms, not in his. In Daniel 8:26, God tells Daniel:
“The vision of the evenings and the mornings that has been spoken is true. Now you must seal up the vision, for it concerns the distant future.”
Daniel lived more than four hundred years before this was written:
Revelation 22:10 Then he told me, “Do not seal up the words of prophecy in this book, because the time is near.”
So why does God consider over four hundred years the “distant future” but considers two-thousand years more as “near?” So far the time of being near the end has been four times as long as it took to be distant from the end. The idea that God is communicating time in “his” terms is both inaccurate and senseless and makes some of the strongest and most repetitive language in the New Testament meaningless or deceptive.
So how did the disciples understand him?
The safest way to determine what Jesus meant to communicate is by how he was understood by his disciples. Jesus was keen and would have realized if the disciples misunderstood him and he certainly did not have intentions for them to misunderstand.
Matthew 13:12, Luke 8:10 He replied, “You are permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but others are not.”
Jesus wished for his disciples to understand him, he did not try to deceive them.
What did the disciples understand:
“Now these things …were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.” (I Cor. 10:11)
“…not only in this age, but also in the one about to come.” (Eph. 1:21)
“The Lord is near.” (Phil. 4:5)
“It is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire.” (II Thess. 1:6-7)
“I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is about to judge the living and the dead…” (II Tim. 4:1)
“For yet in a very little while, He who is coming will come, and will not delay.” (Heb. 10:37)
“For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the one that is about to come.” (Heb. 13:14)
“The end of all things is at hand; therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer.” (I Peter 4:7)
“It is the last hour.” (I Jn. 2:18)
“Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near.” (Rev. 22:10; Compare Dan. 8:26)
“You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.” (Jms. 5:8)
The disciples all said the second coming and the end of the age would happen soon. This means, whatever we think Jesus communicated, he communicated with the intent of the disciples thinking it would truly happen in their generation.
But, what if we misunderstood the disciples the same way we misunderstood Jesus? What if the disciples also meant something different than “soon?” The disciples actions should portray the meaning of their words. For instance, if the disciples knew it would happen far off in the future would they have lived such a unique life to prepare for it? No, they lived differently because they believed it would happen soon.
They were careful not to get drunk because they didn’t want to be caught unaware (1 Thessalonians 5:1-8), they would meet together more and more frequently as they saw the Day approaching (Hebrews 10:25), they were told to be prepared for action that they were expecting swiftly (1 Peter 1:13), they were warned about what to expect in the last days because they were living in them, they did not make long term investments in the world (1 Corinthians 7:29-31) because they expected it’s current form to end soon.
1 Corinthians 7:29-31 What I mean, brothers and sisters, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they do not; those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.
Does this sound like Paul would encourage a young man to go to college? Paul did not believe in investing long-term into their current system because it was about to end.
Some would avoid marriage because they could not live comfortably with the end coming (1 Corinthians 7:26), they would avoid taking the rich to court for their crimes since they would soon receive justice from God (James 5:9). They did all these things because they expected the end to happen soon because Jesus had plainly told them it would happen in their generation before all of them had died. We cannot simply say that when they said it would happen soon they meant something else. Their actions proved that when they said it would happen soon, they believed just that and lived as though it was about to happen.
So then the disciples were not misunderstood, they clearly spoke and acted in the belief that they were about to experience the second coming. But we know it’s not out of the question for a prophet to be misunderstood. Afterall, Isaiah was misunderstood by his generation but his word held applications for future generations. Was Jesus saying something that was misunderstood by his disciples but was meant to be understood by us living today?
Did Jesus mean only for us living today to understand him?
Let’s consider that Jesus was saying those words only for us living today and not for his disciples to understand. Let’s say he meant something else by “this generation” and did not intend to mean the current generation first hearing those words. If so, did he not realize his disciples would misunderstand him? Would any sensible person saying what Jesus said not realize most people would think he meant that present generation? This leaves us two possibilities:
- He was very unaware and ignorant so that he didn’t realize he had miscommunicated
- He did not want to be understood
But Jesus does not seem the type to be ignorant:
Matthew 9:4 Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, “Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts?
He was very aware of what the people around him were thinking and he was a very sensible person. When he didn’t want to be understood he spoke in parables so people wouldn’t understand him. When he wanted to be understood he explained the parables. This means Jesus had a very good grasp of when people understood or misunderstood him.
That means, if he meant something other than that present generation, then he intended to be misunderstood. But, if Jesus intended to be misunderstood so that his disciples could not grasp the timing of his coming, why did he thwart his own plans?
John 16:13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
If Jesus intended to be misunderstood about the timing of his coming, why did he send the Holy Spirit to tell them the truth? Wouldn’t sending them the Spirit be counter productive to his intentions? Because at the very least, the Holy Spirit would tell them that the second coming could come after that generation had passed, something Jesus had misinformed them about. This passage tells us that whatever the disciples believed about the end times and it’s timing, they did under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
And if the Holy Spirit was sent to them with the purpose of guiding them into “all” truth concerning the things of the end, did the Holy Spirit not complete his purpose? Why would he not correct their massive misunderstanding of the timing of the end? Did the Holy Spirit intentionally lie to them? Did the Spirit of truth protect the lie? And if our faith is built upon the disciple’s teachings wouldn’t such a misunderstanding undermine their credibility and the very Christian faith?
We must also remember that Jesus plainly told his disciples he intended them to understand him:
Matthew 13:12, Luke 8:10 And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.”
And by Jesus saying, “Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away,” he revealed his intent to be telling them something reliable not something confusing. He uses such a confident and solemn introduction because he is going to use words in their most natural sense. Not in some uncommon poetical or metaphorical meaning to represent a future hypothetical evil human race or generation that will witness the end.
Obviously, Jesus with great strain wished to be understood by the disciples, he sent the Holy Spirit to help with just that very purpose, he was communicating in the clearest possible use of the language, and he would have been aware of how the disciples understood him. Since the disciples understood him to mean that present generation and prepared themselves for his imminent return and neither Jesus nor the Holy Spirit corrected them, that’s exactly what Jesus meant.
Are we denying Christ’s divinity?
So then, whether God’s plans were thwarted, Jesus lied, or he was insane, all challenge the divinity of Christ. We have exhausted all reasonable meanings of Jesus’s words. We have clearly shown that he prophesied that he would return in that present generation.
- Jesus could not have lied or told a false prophecy and been the Messiah.
- Only an insane person or liar would use the language Jesus used to make a guess and Jesus could not have been insane if he was God. Insanity doesn’t line up with God’s character or even description of himself.
- Though God can withdraw a threat or blessing, God’s plans cannot be thwarted when he gives an oath and he made us an oath to return without delay in that generation and in a “very little while”.
- The disciples, by their own words and actions, showed that they understood Jesus to mean that the present generation would not pass before he returned. Jesus would have been aware if they had misunderstood him and had no intentions for them to misunderstand. Since Jesus did not correct them then that proves he meant to communicate that the present generation would not pass before the end.
This leaves us only one plausible solution: Jesus promised us he would return before that generation passed. Therefore, if we today say that Jesus did not return in that generation, then by implication we are saying he either lied, told a false prophecy, was insane, or broke his word. But the scriptures promise us the Messiah would not lie, it commands us not to listen to someone who tells a false prophecy, God cannot be described as insane, and it is impossible for God to break his oath. Thus, saying Jesus did not return as he promised calls into question whether he was actually the Messiah, calls into question if he was God, and perhaps even undermines the Christian religion all together.
We have been able to avoid these implications simply because we are not carefully thinking through our beliefs. We have taught ourselves to deny our intellect as if faith and intellect were opposed to each other and we choose to ignore these time statements instead of trying to understand them. However, if a person is honest with themselves, they will realize the futurist beliefs are detrimental to the Christian faith. When I was young, I remember reading about the Pharisees and thinking, “they didn’t believe in Jesus because he didn’t come in the way they expected. When Jesus comes in my lifetime, I won’t doubt it, I won’t be like the Pharisees.” But what if in my ignorance, I was behaving like the Pharisees? I was doubting his second coming because he didn’t come in the way I was taught.
This has troubling implications. If we say the Bible was written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of Truth, yet we say Jesus did not return when the inspired disciples promised, then we are charging the Holy Spirit with making a false promise or in other words, lying. And isn’t accusing the Holy Spirit with lying blasphemy? As some Christians put it, “God tricks us into thinking it will happen soon so we will always be prepared and waiting.” In other words, they say the Holy Spirit of Truth intentionally lies to us to get us to do what he wants.
And this brings us back to Preterism. Obviously, I cannot go along with the futurist charade. It is ignorant and hurts the very integrity of Christianity itself. Jesus did return in 66AD before that generation had passed away visibly as recorded in history. The saints were resurrected from Sheol to Heaven, the heavens and earth were shaken and God introduced his kingdom which has been growing in the world ever since.
Jesus is not a failure. He is victorious! He is now King and is changing this world through his growing kingdom:
Isaiah 9:7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.
Isaiah tells us that God’s kingdom, which brings with it justice and peace, will always be increasing upon the earth, the same kingdom and mustard seed that was planted in 66AD. Maybe it’s time we considered that throughout these two-thousand years, despite some of the horrible things that have happened, the world is in a better place than it was two millennia ago and is inconsistently but generally improving. In fact, statistics from Our World in Data show that the condition of the world has been improving for the past 200 years and especially in the past 50 years in every area of desirable human progress. Poverty is at record lows, people are living longer and healthier lives than ever, crime is decreasing all over the world, Christianity is growing rapidly in almost every country. Statistics prove the world is not getting better, not worse. If your curious about this progress check out:
J. D. King’s Is The World Getting Worse?
Some estimate that over a third of the New Testament speaks of the end times. This was the core of their Christian hope and everything they hoped, prayed, and endured for was in expecting it to happen soon. If not for the integrity of the Bible, then at least for the quantity of verses affected by our interpretation, we should be open to the possibility that Jesus actually returned when he said he would. Check out this article by David A. Green that shows just how clear the Bible makes it that Jesus was meant to return soon. Please take time to read it.
In our next article, we will show that Jesus promised the Resurrection of the Dead at his return and we will demonstrate how that was fulfilled when he came in 66AD.