"And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down." Matthew 24:2.
"Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled." Matthew 24:34.
Like bookends, Jesus explains perfectly when His coming occurred. Yes, occurred - past tense. Particularly when we have the benefit of historical hindsight, our refusal to listen to Him now is even more unforgiveable. Jesus told His disciples that not one stone of the temple would stand upon another, then the disciples asked Him when that event would happen, then Jesus told them. The temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. I hate to tell you this, but you have missed the Great Tribulation.
Then in verse 34, Jesus says that all the things He said would happen would come to pass before the generation he was speaking to passed away. Yet, interpreters still try to explain away the meaning of the word "generation," sometimes in the most absurd ways. They still let their own desire and bias overrule the common sense meaning of Jesus' words. So, when will these things be?
“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. 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. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Matthew 24:29-51.
This passage will require several posts to explicate.
Saturday, February 22, 2014
Friday, February 21, 2014
Deception about the End - Matthew 24 Part 4
"Don't be deceived." Vss 23-28 tell you that if someone says that Christ's final return in person has happened, don't listen. His return will not be in secret or like that of a normal person; His final return will be so incontrovertible that no one will be able to miss it. Notice that the deceivers are wrong on at least two critical points: One, they're wrong on the timing (there's that word again). They're too early! The deceivers are those who claim He's walking around on earth as a regular person when He's really in heaven sitting at the right hand of the Father.
Two, they're wrong on the manner of the final return. It will be like lightning traveling across the sky - fast, bright and blinding, not secret nor easy to miss. The entire idea of predicting His final return is fool-laden, for it shall need no introduction nor explanation to keep His people from missing it. The bottom line: You don't need any preliminary events to tell you when it will happen. It will be undeniable.
Where is the carcase? The Greek word for carcase is ptoma, and it means a fall into sin and death. The air creatures, translated in the King James version as "eagles," are what gather around this fall. The English Standard Version translates verse 28 this way: "Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather." There are numerous ways to interpret this interesting verse about the eagles gathering around a carcase, but what does it mean? Particularly in light of the context - how not to be deceived about Christ presence on earth.
Let the bible interpret itself. Jesus didn't hang around carcases, except to raise them from the dead. He told one man to "let the dead bury the dead." Matthew 8:22. He was life, and following Him was all that mattered. The Hebrew bible (Old Testament) states that a carcase is unclean and to be avoided, if possible. Therefore, the carcase can't be where we'll find Jesus. Those who pretend to be Him or pretend to know He's walking the earth live in death; avoid them!
There is a specific carcase about which Jesus is referring in this passage, and avoiding that carcase is a major part of Jesus' warning to His disciples. Do you have it figured out yet? Who or what is that carcase in the first century? Matthew 23, which is a discussion directly before, perhaps only minutes before, the Chapter 24 discourse. In fact, because the Chapter 23 discourse probably inspired the disciples' comments about the beautiful buildings at the beginning of Chapter 24, I'll assert that the Chapter 24 discourse is a continuation of the Chapter 23 discourse, only for a different audience. Chapter 23 is a prophetic rebuke for the evil, and Chapter 24 is a prophetic warning and advice for the faithful.
It seems to be the verses directly after Jesus' warning about not being deceived that get people off track. The main reasons for this mis-targeting are 1) the desire to be at the end instead of live responsibly and advance His Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven, 2) the failure to use the bible to interpret the bible, and 3) the failure to follow Jesus' own words about His final return and the way to not be deceived. Thus, most interpreters are irresponsible, and they promote irresponsibility. Most people use the newspaper to interpret Jesus' words. This method of interpretation will always lead you astray. Also, most people think His words refer to future events, thereby ignoring Jesus' words in yet another way.
Two, they're wrong on the manner of the final return. It will be like lightning traveling across the sky - fast, bright and blinding, not secret nor easy to miss. The entire idea of predicting His final return is fool-laden, for it shall need no introduction nor explanation to keep His people from missing it. The bottom line: You don't need any preliminary events to tell you when it will happen. It will be undeniable.
Where is the carcase? The Greek word for carcase is ptoma, and it means a fall into sin and death. The air creatures, translated in the King James version as "eagles," are what gather around this fall. The English Standard Version translates verse 28 this way: "Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather." There are numerous ways to interpret this interesting verse about the eagles gathering around a carcase, but what does it mean? Particularly in light of the context - how not to be deceived about Christ presence on earth.
Let the bible interpret itself. Jesus didn't hang around carcases, except to raise them from the dead. He told one man to "let the dead bury the dead." Matthew 8:22. He was life, and following Him was all that mattered. The Hebrew bible (Old Testament) states that a carcase is unclean and to be avoided, if possible. Therefore, the carcase can't be where we'll find Jesus. Those who pretend to be Him or pretend to know He's walking the earth live in death; avoid them!
There is a specific carcase about which Jesus is referring in this passage, and avoiding that carcase is a major part of Jesus' warning to His disciples. Do you have it figured out yet? Who or what is that carcase in the first century? Matthew 23, which is a discussion directly before, perhaps only minutes before, the Chapter 24 discourse. In fact, because the Chapter 23 discourse probably inspired the disciples' comments about the beautiful buildings at the beginning of Chapter 24, I'll assert that the Chapter 24 discourse is a continuation of the Chapter 23 discourse, only for a different audience. Chapter 23 is a prophetic rebuke for the evil, and Chapter 24 is a prophetic warning and advice for the faithful.
It seems to be the verses directly after Jesus' warning about not being deceived that get people off track. The main reasons for this mis-targeting are 1) the desire to be at the end instead of live responsibly and advance His Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven, 2) the failure to use the bible to interpret the bible, and 3) the failure to follow Jesus' own words about His final return and the way to not be deceived. Thus, most interpreters are irresponsible, and they promote irresponsibility. Most people use the newspaper to interpret Jesus' words. This method of interpretation will always lead you astray. Also, most people think His words refer to future events, thereby ignoring Jesus' words in yet another way.
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Matthew 24 Part 3 - It was right in front of us all along
It does not take complex degrees from seminary or understanding of the Greek to figure out the meaning of Matthew 24. Just read it for what Jesus intended. He's the Christ, and He's a prophet, the final prophet, but not the only one. He speaks like the prophets of old, like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah. Ever read them? They use colorful, picturesque language to make their point as powerfully, as poignantly, as effectively as possible. Do you think God has no emotion? He created us with emotions. His prophets' language expresses emotion and great meaning.
Those who hypocritically call for interpreting all of the bible literally (no one, not even the literalists, interpret all the bible literally) does not bring out the truth; it would hide t. Symbolism is meaningful because the words mean what they say and more. If you take the symbolic word literally, you haven't enhanced the meaning, you've taken away meaning.
So, the prophets speak emotionally because God cares, and they speak symbolically because their words have greater meaning than just what the words would say alone. They spoke truly because they had an important warning for people, so the message was practical. Jesus spoke that way too.
Take the following passage as an example of just taking His words as intended.
"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." Matthew 24:15-22.
Ignoring until a future blog post "the abomination of desolation," a symbolic phrase used by another prophet, Daniel, notice that Jesus wants the listener to understand. In other words, something esoteric and difficult to decipher is not about to be pronounced. Nor is it something to happen centuries later; it is a warning for the people of His day. I'm going to quote the advice he gives one sentence at a time, then I'll ask questions. You tell me what makes sense. By the way, notice that the advice is based on, yep, timing - "When ye see."
1st quote: "Let them in Judaea flee into the mountains." What good is fleeing into the mountains if the passage is about Jesus returning to earth to end history? If it's about some anti-Christ political/religious leader taking over the world, against whom Christians should stand up as a witness to the truth and the true King, Jesus Christ, why would Jesus advise to flee cowardly?
2nd quote: "Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house." Oh yeah, that's really sensible advice. I'll just jump off my roof when Jesus or the anti-Christ comes. Tell me when coming off your roof in a hurry ever makes sense except in 1st-century Israel.
3d quote: "But pray that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day." I understand that winter can be a bad time for fleeing at any time in history, but I'm not sure why the sabbath day would make a difference today. Can someone explain that timing issue and its relevance to our day or later?
4th quote: "For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be." Do you still not see it? It's been there all along - ". . . nor ever shall be." So, are you sorry that you have missed the Great Tribulation? Well, I hate to break it to you, but you have.
5th quote: "And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." Tell me, end-of-the-worlders, if the end of the world is the event being referred to by Christ, why in the name of total fiery destruction would flesh need to be saved and the days shortened if the world is about to be burned up with fire? Even if you believe in some extra-biblical, post-apocalypse, bureaucratic government, ruled by Jesus and His post-resurrection saints, then you still can't explain why there would be any need to shorten the days of destruction for the sake of the elect, who would be resurrected from the dead anyway in order to rule after the destruction of anti-Christ?
Thus, even if you just read Jesus' words with some good, ole common sense, you have to know that there's something wrong with the futuristic view of Matthew 24. You should at least ask some questions. But that's not all.
Those who hypocritically call for interpreting all of the bible literally (no one, not even the literalists, interpret all the bible literally) does not bring out the truth; it would hide t. Symbolism is meaningful because the words mean what they say and more. If you take the symbolic word literally, you haven't enhanced the meaning, you've taken away meaning.
So, the prophets speak emotionally because God cares, and they speak symbolically because their words have greater meaning than just what the words would say alone. They spoke truly because they had an important warning for people, so the message was practical. Jesus spoke that way too.
Take the following passage as an example of just taking His words as intended.
"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." Matthew 24:15-22.
Ignoring until a future blog post "the abomination of desolation," a symbolic phrase used by another prophet, Daniel, notice that Jesus wants the listener to understand. In other words, something esoteric and difficult to decipher is not about to be pronounced. Nor is it something to happen centuries later; it is a warning for the people of His day. I'm going to quote the advice he gives one sentence at a time, then I'll ask questions. You tell me what makes sense. By the way, notice that the advice is based on, yep, timing - "When ye see."
1st quote: "Let them in Judaea flee into the mountains." What good is fleeing into the mountains if the passage is about Jesus returning to earth to end history? If it's about some anti-Christ political/religious leader taking over the world, against whom Christians should stand up as a witness to the truth and the true King, Jesus Christ, why would Jesus advise to flee cowardly?
2nd quote: "Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house." Oh yeah, that's really sensible advice. I'll just jump off my roof when Jesus or the anti-Christ comes. Tell me when coming off your roof in a hurry ever makes sense except in 1st-century Israel.
3d quote: "But pray that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day." I understand that winter can be a bad time for fleeing at any time in history, but I'm not sure why the sabbath day would make a difference today. Can someone explain that timing issue and its relevance to our day or later?
4th quote: "For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be." Do you still not see it? It's been there all along - ". . . nor ever shall be." So, are you sorry that you have missed the Great Tribulation? Well, I hate to break it to you, but you have.
5th quote: "And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." Tell me, end-of-the-worlders, if the end of the world is the event being referred to by Christ, why in the name of total fiery destruction would flesh need to be saved and the days shortened if the world is about to be burned up with fire? Even if you believe in some extra-biblical, post-apocalypse, bureaucratic government, ruled by Jesus and His post-resurrection saints, then you still can't explain why there would be any need to shorten the days of destruction for the sake of the elect, who would be resurrected from the dead anyway in order to rule after the destruction of anti-Christ?
Thus, even if you just read Jesus' words with some good, ole common sense, you have to know that there's something wrong with the futuristic view of Matthew 24. You should at least ask some questions. But that's not all.
Matthew 24 Part 2
Most people reading the bible do not know how to interpret prophetic language. Instead of using the bible to interpret the bible, they use the newspaper or the most simplistic method. Here's an example from Matthew 24. "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." Matthew 24:14.
Have you ever really thought through that one? Let's look at it from the typical "the end is near and it's hopefully getting nearer" perspective.
First, does that mean every person has to hear the gospel accurately and fully preached? What if they read it on the internet? What if they hear a street preacher but leave before the final clear message is stated? At what point do you know that every last individual has heard the preaching of the good news so that you will know the end is at hand, or more at hand? That's why He told us, right? So we'd know when the end is to occur - the one we're also not supposed to know when it will occur. Compare Matthew 24:3 and Acts 1:6-7.
Second, Jesus said in Matthew 28, just before His ascension into heaven to sit at the right hand of God, the most powerful throne in the universe, that the disciples were to preach the gospel of the kingdom, teaching them to obey all that He had commanded. What's the point of obeying all that He had commanded if the end of the world happens just as the last person hears the gospel preached? How does God's original plan for planet earth get fulfilled, if it's destroyed upon that last successful preaching of the gospel, contrary to Genesis 9:11 and 15 by the way? Why would God destroy His earth now that the gospel has been proclaimed fully? What about the leaven of the kingdom that acts over time? What about the seed that Jesus said becomes the greatest tree in the garden?
Third, did Jesus mean the entire earth, or did He mean the known world of His time? "A few years before the destruction of Jerusalem, Paul wrote to Christians in Colossae of 'the gospel which has come to you, just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing' (Col. 1:5-6), and exhorted them not to depart 'from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven' (Col. 1:23). To the church at Rome, Paul announced that 'your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world' (Rom. 1:8), for the voice of gospel preachers 'has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world' (Rom. 10:18). According to the infallible Word of God, the gospel was indeed preached to the whole world, well before Jerusalem was destroyed in A.D. 70. This crucial sign of the end was fulfilled, as Jesus had said." Chilton, "Paradise Restored," p. 91, published by Dominion Press, Tyler, TX, in 1985 and reprinted in 1985, 1987, and 1994.
Fourth,if, as Paul writes under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Jesus' prophesy has already been fulfilled, then what was He referring to? I'm pretending for the moment that Jesus did not tell us at the beginning of Matthew 24 exactly what event He was talking about - the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in 70 A.D. I can't say it any better than David Chilton said it in "Paradise Restored."
Why do the end-timers contend that we take literally the words in Matthew 24 and Revelation but do not take literally the words of Paul, an inspired writer of God? Perhaps, it wouldn't fit into their preconceived theology of the end, their eschatology? Who then is twisting God's word? Those who interpret literally what is intended to be interpreted in the bible's illustrative language and in context. Or those who Christ to return in their own generation. Is the latter faithful to what Christ was telling us? Is it faithful to the bible?
I say it is unfaithful to the text and intent of what Christ wanted. He wanted us to build - "Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness." Matthew 6:33. No matter how bad it gets, we do not yearn for Christ's coming, except as it relates to His delivering us from evil and assisting in establishing His kingdom, honoring His Father, and keeping faithful with the original intent of the Genesis plan, which will frustrate the plan of the serpent. Do you want the world to end with Satan's choice of king of kings and lord of lords in charge? Really? Is that God's plan for planet earth? That the defeated one be alive and well when Christ returns? Is that what Christ died for, rose again for, and ascended to the most powerful position in the universe for? I don't think so.
Have you ever really thought through that one? Let's look at it from the typical "the end is near and it's hopefully getting nearer" perspective.
First, does that mean every person has to hear the gospel accurately and fully preached? What if they read it on the internet? What if they hear a street preacher but leave before the final clear message is stated? At what point do you know that every last individual has heard the preaching of the good news so that you will know the end is at hand, or more at hand? That's why He told us, right? So we'd know when the end is to occur - the one we're also not supposed to know when it will occur. Compare Matthew 24:3 and Acts 1:6-7.
Second, Jesus said in Matthew 28, just before His ascension into heaven to sit at the right hand of God, the most powerful throne in the universe, that the disciples were to preach the gospel of the kingdom, teaching them to obey all that He had commanded. What's the point of obeying all that He had commanded if the end of the world happens just as the last person hears the gospel preached? How does God's original plan for planet earth get fulfilled, if it's destroyed upon that last successful preaching of the gospel, contrary to Genesis 9:11 and 15 by the way? Why would God destroy His earth now that the gospel has been proclaimed fully? What about the leaven of the kingdom that acts over time? What about the seed that Jesus said becomes the greatest tree in the garden?
Third, did Jesus mean the entire earth, or did He mean the known world of His time? "A few years before the destruction of Jerusalem, Paul wrote to Christians in Colossae of 'the gospel which has come to you, just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing' (Col. 1:5-6), and exhorted them not to depart 'from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven' (Col. 1:23). To the church at Rome, Paul announced that 'your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world' (Rom. 1:8), for the voice of gospel preachers 'has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world' (Rom. 10:18). According to the infallible Word of God, the gospel was indeed preached to the whole world, well before Jerusalem was destroyed in A.D. 70. This crucial sign of the end was fulfilled, as Jesus had said." Chilton, "Paradise Restored," p. 91, published by Dominion Press, Tyler, TX, in 1985 and reprinted in 1985, 1987, and 1994.
Fourth,if, as Paul writes under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Jesus' prophesy has already been fulfilled, then what was He referring to? I'm pretending for the moment that Jesus did not tell us at the beginning of Matthew 24 exactly what event He was talking about - the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in 70 A.D. I can't say it any better than David Chilton said it in "Paradise Restored."
Why do the end-timers contend that we take literally the words in Matthew 24 and Revelation but do not take literally the words of Paul, an inspired writer of God? Perhaps, it wouldn't fit into their preconceived theology of the end, their eschatology? Who then is twisting God's word? Those who interpret literally what is intended to be interpreted in the bible's illustrative language and in context. Or those who Christ to return in their own generation. Is the latter faithful to what Christ was telling us? Is it faithful to the bible?
I say it is unfaithful to the text and intent of what Christ wanted. He wanted us to build - "Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness." Matthew 6:33. No matter how bad it gets, we do not yearn for Christ's coming, except as it relates to His delivering us from evil and assisting in establishing His kingdom, honoring His Father, and keeping faithful with the original intent of the Genesis plan, which will frustrate the plan of the serpent. Do you want the world to end with Satan's choice of king of kings and lord of lords in charge? Really? Is that God's plan for planet earth? That the defeated one be alive and well when Christ returns? Is that what Christ died for, rose again for, and ascended to the most powerful position in the universe for? I don't think so.
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