Interesting. I lean toward "this generation" being when Christ judged Jerusalem, and destroyed the temple. Yet could it be more than this?
This hits home: "...a dream world where the good news is not that Jesus died and rose to bring us to God, but that people are now healthy because the messiahs have fixed the health care system, differences reconciled because the thought police enforce correct speech; peace in our time, world hunger ended, and third world debt relief accomplished: kingdom come without Jesus."
The Gospel, the genuine Gospel, is hated. The watered down gospel is okay though. Jesus is Christianity's Banner Boy, as Muhammad is Islam's Banner Boy, and Budha, and whoever else, put them all up there together on the same level.
Jesus says everything he has described will take place before “this generation” passes away. What does that mean?
Some take “this generation” to refer to the historical generation of people alive at the time of Jesus, and those who take this view are forced to one of two conclusions. One conclusion is that Jesus was wrong. He didn’t return during the lifetime of that generation. The other conclusion is to see the fulfillment of what Jesus describes in AD 70.
I think there’s a better solution. I think “this generation” should not be taken to refer to the historical generation alive at the time of Jesus. Rather, “this generation” refers to the generation of the end. Both the generation of the flood (Gen 7:1) and the generation of the wilderness (Num 32:13) are types of the end time generation on which God’s wrath will fall. And the biblical authors can also speak of “the generation of those who seek your face, O God of Jacob” (Ps 24:6).
So there is an evil end time generation that will face judgment, and there is a righteous generation that seeks God’s face. I take this statement of Jesus, then, to be typological. It does not deal with the next 20–40 years of a historical generation.
Interesting. I lean toward "this generation" being when Christ judged Jerusalem, and destroyed the temple. Yet could it be more than this?
ReplyDeleteThis hits home: "...a dream world where the good news is not that Jesus died and rose to bring us to God, but that people are now healthy because the messiahs have fixed the health care system, differences reconciled because the thought police enforce correct speech; peace in our time, world hunger ended, and third world debt relief accomplished: kingdom come without Jesus."
The Gospel, the genuine Gospel, is hated. The watered down gospel is okay though. Jesus is Christianity's Banner Boy, as Muhammad is Islam's Banner Boy, and Budha, and whoever else, put them all up there together on the same level.
this was the meat quote of the article, imo:
ReplyDeleteJesus says everything he has described will take place before “this generation” passes away. What does that mean?
Some take “this generation” to refer to the historical generation of people alive at the time of Jesus, and those who take this view are forced to one of two conclusions. One conclusion is that Jesus was wrong. He didn’t return during the lifetime of that generation. The other conclusion is to see the fulfillment of what Jesus describes in AD 70.
I think there’s a better solution. I think “this generation” should not be taken to refer to the historical generation alive at the time of Jesus. Rather, “this generation” refers to the generation of the end. Both the generation of the flood (Gen 7:1) and the generation of the wilderness (Num 32:13) are types of the end time generation on which God’s wrath will fall. And the biblical authors can also speak of “the generation of those who seek your face, O God of Jacob” (Ps 24:6).
So there is an evil end time generation that will face judgment, and there is a righteous generation that seeks God’s face. I take this statement of Jesus, then, to be typological. It does not deal with the next 20–40 years of a historical generation.