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Parousia
The Second Coming of Christ
Matthew 24 beside similar accounts of Christ's prophecy.
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Without this introductory section in Matt. 23, it is
impossible to understand chapter 24. This is one continuous speech,
interrupted only when Jesus' left the Temple area where he had been
addressing the scribes and Pharisees and moved to the Mount of Olives.
There he privately continued conveying his predictions to his trusted
disciples concerning the destruction of the Jew's temple. Then in a
general way, he sketched some major trends and brought up some events
that would happen throughout history right on down to the time of his
second Coming.
The language used in the Temple prepares us for what
follows. Particularly important is to come to grips early on with the meaning of
terms like "this generation." In addition, we must realize that Jesus
was talking about his second coming in Matt. 23:39. Not all of his
disciples may have understood this at the time, but a few did. Without
our being aware of this, the question about his Parousia in Matt. 24 seems
abrupt and out of place.
In telling the Jews, "Your house is left unto you
desolate," Jesus was warning of his own permanent departure from the
temple. He was also introducing what is the inevitable outcome of that
departure, the temple's complete loss of God's glory. Without Jesus,
there is no Shekinah. In the end, the temple would be fit only for
Daniel's abomination of desolation.
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| Matt. 23:29 |
Luke 11:47 |
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In the temple court at Jerusalem; 5 days before the
Cross: |
Galilee; Less than 1 yr. before the Cross:
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| 23:29 Woe unto you, scribes
and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets,
and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, |
11:47 Woe unto you [lawyers]!
for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed
them. |
| 30 And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have
been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. |
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| 31 Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that
ye are the children
of them which killed the prophets. |
48 Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers: for
they indeed killed them, and ye build their sepulchres. |
| 32 Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. |
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| 33 Ye serpents, ye
generation of vipers,
how can ye escape the damnation
of hell? |
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| 34 Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and
scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them
shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to
city: |
49 Therefore also said
the wisdom of God,
I will send them prophets
and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute: |
| 35 That upon you may come
all
the righteous blood shed upon the earth, |
50 That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the
foundation of the world, may be required of this generation; |
| from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of
Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. [Gen.4:8; 2
Chron.24:20-21] |
51 From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished
between the altar and the temple [Gen.4:8; 2 Chron.24:20-21]: |
| 36 Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon
this generation.
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verily I say unto you, It shall be
required of this generation. |
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Notice that following from Luke does not come from the
same place as the above selection from the same author. Presentation of
material on a different occasion allows for a difference in meaning and
objective.
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| Matt. 23:37 |
Luke 13:34 |
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At the temple in Jerusalem; 5 days before the
Cross: |
Perea ; Less than 6 mo: |
| 23:37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest
them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy
children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings,
and ye would not! |
13:34 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how
often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather
her brood under her wings, and ye would not! |
| 38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. |
35 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate:[Ps.118:26; Jer.12:7;
22:5] |
| 39 For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till
ye shall say,
Blessed is he that cometh in the name
of the Lord.
[Ps.118:26; Jer.12:7; 22:5] |
and verily I say unto
you, Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed
is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. |
ALL THE RIGHTEOUS BLOOD:
This is an extremely difficult verse for anyone who thinks the word
genea, from which the KJV translation "generation" comes, means only
the Jews who were present when Jesus was speaking.
One generation is not responsible for the sins of a previous one: "The
son shall not bear the iniquity of the father," Eze 18:20. However, our
present verse immediately makes sense if we believe that Jesus was
speaking of the Jewish "race." In keeping with the rest of the New
Testament, we should also narrow this to a particular kind of person. In
Rom. 9, Paul speaks of Jews who were Jews in the flesh only. "They are
not all Israel, which are of Israel: Neither, because they are the seed
of Abraham, are they all children," Rom 9:6, 7. This kind of Jew belongs
to a special class because he does not believe in the promise given to
Abraham concerning the Seed, who is Jesus, the Christ. Jews so
classified cannot be the "children of promise." Rather, they are the
children of the Devil and in all ages, it has been the individuals in
this class who were ready to
kill any member of Israel who insisted on being spiritual minded. Notice
that Jesus goes so far as to put this kind of Jew in the same class as
Cain, who lived long before God called out Abraham's seed to be a
special people. Cain was the first human with a murderous heart and he
wound up killing his righteous brother Able. Speaking to the then
present Jews, Jesus also said, "You slew [Zacharias]." That could not be
true in a personal way, but is true of that class of killers. That is
what Jesus had in mind because it was Jews of this kind that killed the
prophets and would now kill both Jesus and his followers. Since most of the Jews of Jesus'
day proved themselves to be in this category, they were addressed in
verse 33 as a "race of vipers."
"YE SHALL SAY":
When Jesus Christ returns to this earth, the Jewish people will say, "Blessed is he who comes in the name of
the Lord." Every position on prophecy has its difficulties and this verse is not easily handled by
the hyper-Preterist. To admit that the day will come when
rebel Jews will turn to Christ destroys Preterism. The Jews,
as a a people, or nation rejected Christ when he came the first time.
"He came unto his own, but his own received him not," wrote John. But that
genea, that race,
will not reject him at his Parousia. How many of this race will welcome
him when he arrives is not clear but the verse allows that even some who have
the same mindset as those first century Jews will change their minds
about Jesus prior to his return to this earth. Why they will repent, we
cannot say for certain. Perhaps the tribulation, the time of Jacob's
trouble, will soften their hearts. Or perhaps the Spirit of God will
finally get through to them. Whatever the case, Paul wrote, "If they
abide not still in unbelief, they will be grafted [back] in [to the
olive tree, Christ], for God is able to graft them in again," Rom.
11:23.
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