Continued from yesterday.<\/i><\/p>\n
Our second point: Jesus said that all these things would occur before that time.
\nLet me set this comment in context. In Matt 23:36 Jesus said to his
\nfollowers this: \u201cAmen, I say to you, all these things will come about
\nupon this generation\u201d \u2013 and he is speaking of the avenging of righteous
\nblood. Then in 24:2 Jesus asks if his disciples see \u201cthese things\u201d \u2013
\nand he is speaking of the Temple and its stones that are about to
\ncrumble into a heap. And then the disciples ask him when will these
\nthings come about (24:3). We have here the evidence: \u201cthese things\u201d
\nmust refer in these texts to the destruction of Jerusalem.<\/p>\n
Third, we can put this together as this: Jesus predicts that all these
\nthings will occur within a generation. Not \u201csome,\u201d but \u201call<\/b>.\u201d This ties
\nin very well with the term \u201cimmediately\u201d in Matt 24:29 \u2013 immediately
\nafter those things (the birth pangs, etc.) then the Son of Man will \u201ccome\u201d \u2013 whatever that means. This means that Jesus thinks
\nthe destruction of Jerusalem will occur before or around A.D. 70<\/i>. [Italics words accidentally omitted and now edited back in. Sorry.]<\/p>\n
\nFourth, this leads to what was for me the most startling revelation of what I perceived to be an honest reading of Matthew 24. When Jesus says \u201call these things\u201d he includes the astral, heavenly wonders and the Son of Man\u2019s so-called coming in Matthew 24:29-31. We could stop right here and the case would be made, but we need to go back now to the original quest we had \u2013 where does Jesus speak of the destruction of Jerusalem?<\/p>\n
The answer to that question, simply put, is this: Matt 24:29-31\/Mark 13:24-27\/Luke 21:25-28 describe in apocalyptic and prophetic imagery (the) destruction (of Jerusalem) as the vindication of the Son of Man, that is, the vindication of Jesus as Israel\u2019s Messiah who has been rejected. In this language, then, we see that the nation\u2019s leaders have been judged as was Israel at the hand of Assyria and Babylon and now Rome.<\/p>\n
Let me begin with the obvious: the word \u201ccoming\u201d in Matt. 24:30 translates the Greek word erchomai<\/i>, a term that means \u201ccoming\u201d but not specific with respect to \u201cdescending\u201d or \u201cascending.\u201d To answer the direction of that \u201ccoming,\u201d we need to look at the source for Jesus\u2019 comments, and that source is Daniel 7:13 and there described the ascent<\/b> of the Son of Man before the Ancient of Days to receive political dominion. I can\u2019t tell you how significant this conclusion is for understanding the prediction of Jesus. The plain sense of these words, because Jesus is so clearly appealing to the Daniel text as somehow fulfilled in the future, is that Jesus sees the words of Matt 24:29-31 as his victorious, ascension-like reception of power as King and ruler over a body of people. Jesus is announcing the fulfillment of Daniel 7, that is his exaltation and authorization with power before God, and not his \u2018return\u2019 to earth. That event is in some sense his \u2018appearing\u2019 (parousia; 24:3, 27, 37, 39).<\/p>\n
With the term coming<\/i> settled, we can ask about the astral phenomena, the mourning, and the gathering of the elect. Very briefly, they are also about the same destruction of Jerusalem and the vindication of the Son of Man. When we read of the sun being blotted out, and the moon\u2019s light being quenched, and stars falling out of the heavens those who read their Old Testaments will immediately think of passages such as the following: Isa. 13:9-10; 34:4; Ezek. 32:7; Amos 8:9; Joel 2:10 and 3:15. Perhaps one example will suffice: Ezek. 32:7 reads, of Pharaoh: \u201cWhen I blot you out, I will cover the heavens, and make their stars dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give its light.\u201d That happened already. In other words, astral disasters are celestial metaphors for earthly political disasters \u2013 when Israel, when Judah, or when Egypt falls, when a political kingdom collapses, the ancients resort to heavenly phenomena falling, to the sun and moon failing to give their light, that is to cosmic sympathy and correlation. Incidentally, when Pentecost occurred Peter saw what happened as a fulfillment of Joel 2:28-32, and there is absolutely no idea that the sons and daughters speaking was the fulfillment but the astral phenomena yet to come \u2013 in fact, the speaking in tongues<\/a> was simultaneously political disaster for Israel. It began the ending of her national privilege.<\/p>\n As for the mourning \u2026 this much can be said. What Jesus predicts here about mourning sounds very much like Zech. 12:9-10 wherein we read that Israel will wail tribe by tribe over the political disasters occurring around her. But, in fact, that wailing is one of sympathy for the nations being vanquished by God in his battle against those who oppress his people. As the stars, sun and moon correlate with God\u2019s acts, so also will Israel wail over punishment \u2013 but this time, so suggests Jesus, the wailing will be by those Israelites who follow Jesus and they shall bemoan those Israelites who experience God\u2019s just judgment on Jerusalem. That Israel is in view here, and not the world, is virtually proven by the fact that the term \u201ctribe\u201d refers to Israel.<\/p>\n The gathering of the elect has drawn the most fire for this interpretation but I would preface my interpretation with this observation: whatever we make of the gathering of the elect, it occurs within one generation of Jesus and in conjunction with the astral phenomena, the mourning, and the vindication of the Son of Man. I think it most likely that the regathering is a metaphorical description of the re-constitution of Israel as twelve-tribe people \u2013 a significant theme among the prophets of Israel and Judah, but now in terms of followers of Jesus and the Twelve apostles he appointed. That is, the destruction of Jerusalem will result in the reconstitution of Israel under the Twelve apostles. A variant interpretation, under the influence of Matt. 13:41, is that this refers to an angelic gathering of non-believing Israelites to Jerusalem for judgment. And yet another view would see this as a metaphor for evangelism of the Roman empire.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Continued from yesterday. Our second point: Jesus said that all these things would occur before that time. Let me set this comment in context. In Matt 23:36 Jesus said to his followers this: \u201cAmen, I say to you, all these things will come about upon this generation\u201d \u2013 and he is speaking of the avenging […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n