(new article tomorrow for certain)
"The coming of Christ in A.D.70 was a coming in judgment on the Jewish nation, indicating the end of the Jewish age and the fulfillment of a day of the Lord. Jesus really did come in judgment at this time, fulfilling his prophecy in the Olivet Discourse." (R.C. Sproul, The Last Days According to Jesus, p. 158)
"It has been a standard feature of Christian preaching through the ages that the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 was really God's decisive punishment of the Jewish people for their rejection of Jesus, who died around the year 30." (Steve Mason, Josephus and the New Testament)
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In one of His most commonly known parables, Jesus Christ informs, “When a fig tree begins to put forth its leaves you know harvest time is coming. You can tell what time of the year it is; you can tell what’s going on by looking around you.”
Matthew 24: [32] Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:
[33] So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
[34] Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
[35] Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
[36] But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
[37] But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
“This is the passage people wrongly use to try and date the Rapture and the Second Coming,” explains Richard Jordan. “Anti-dispensationalists say that all these things Christ talked about in these verses about the judgment coming have already past and are historically filled; there’s no future prophecy.
“With Preterism, Calvinism and Covenant theology, they literally believe that everything except the final consummation has taken place. All the prophecies of Daniel, Revelation; they all took place around 70 A.D. when the Romans came in and defiled the temple in Jerusalem.
“That’s just bad Bible thinking. It took until 135 A.D. before they got the Jews out of Israel, so the deportation, finally, didn’t take place for another 60 years. Theologians get all that stuff out of things like Josephus’ writings, not out of the Bible.
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Luke 21:27: [27] And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
That’s Mark 13:25. [25] And the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken.
[26] And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.
Luke 21 continues, [28] And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.
[29] And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree, and all the trees;
[30] When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.
[31] So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.
[32] Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled.
“When those events start to take place, He says, ‘Look up because the Son of man is coming.’ By that verse write down Acts 1: 9-11: [9] And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.
[10] And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;
[11] Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.
“Just like He personally goes up in a cloud, He’s going to come back in a cloud, this time in power and in great glory, as opposed to in meekness and lowliness, as with His first coming.
“The reason it's asked, ‘Why you keep looking up into heaven?’ is because it isn’t time for Him to come back. When would they look up? When you see all these signs.
“In Acts 1:6, His apostles had asked, ‘Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?’ Jesus said, ‘It’s not for you to know the times,’ and then He ascends up and the apostles look up, He’s gone, and the angel says, ‘Hey, it’s not time for you to look up; it’s time for you to go get busy.’ The time to look up is when you see the sign.”
“There were things they would be able to identify as happening, telling them, ‘Okay, it’s time for His coming in power and in great glory.’
*****
“Mark 13: 28] Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When her branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is near:
[29] So ye in like manner, when ye shall see these things come to pass, know that it is nigh, even at the doors.
“Here’s the conclusion in verse 30: [30] Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done.
“This is where people go sideways. The generation here is not 33 years, or 40 years, or 100 years. People talk about, ‘Okay, the generation that sees Israel become a nation.’ They fight about, 'How long is a generation?'
“They say, ‘A perfect generation will be 33 years because that’s how old Jesus was.’ Someone else says, ‘No, a perfect generation would be 40 years.’ Somebody else says it’s 100 years.
“You can do all those things in your Bible and come up with ‘eeny meeny miny moe,’ whichever one you want, and that’s got nothing to do with what’s going on.
“A generation in the Bible is not the issue of how long something lasts; it’s, 'Where did it come from?' When He says, ‘This generation,’ He’s talking about a wicked and adulterous generation in Israel.
“You remember in Matthew 3:7, John the Baptist looked at the Pharisees and said, ‘O generation of vipers who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come.’
“Satan is the viper, the poisonous serpent, the liar. Here’s a group of people who, spiritually, Jesus said of, ‘You are of your father the devil,’ and He’s talking to the Pharisees and Sadducees; the religious leaders, the rabbinical leaders of his nation. He said, ‘You’ve been co-opted by the satanic policy, the lie program, and where you spiritually come from is the Adversary.'
“That’s a wicked generation and it began in Genesis 4. That generation began with a character named Cain. So it’s not a time element; it’s a ‘who are you following?’ element. Are you following the lie program or the truth program?”
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