Post by king neb on May 17, 2006 10:23:31 GMT -5
well, its been real quiet here lately. I thought i'd offer this up to maybe stir things up a bit. ;D Keep in mind that there are some quotes here by non-believers that frankly, i wouldn't care what they said. My point in including them is not to say, 'See, see, even the non-believers see it and we're not answering the charge', as if we had to answer to 'fools' who wouldn't believe God's Word regardless of what we told them. My point is simply to show that they ALONG WITH many 'orthodox' christians have long recognized the problem of the immenency of the New Testament. It is globally recognized. Anyone reading the text can see it. So what are we going to do with it? ignore it? act like it isn't there? or will we even go so far as thomas aquinas did and postulate two gospels! [see quote below]
THE "PAROUSIA DELAY"
"Postponement" Explanations for the Mistaken "Non-Occurrence" of the Second Coming
AN EXAMPLE OF THIS HORRIBLE ERROR :
"We conclude, therefore, that according to the teaching of Christ, the parousia was to be within the current generation. We must, accordingly, admit that this expectation of Christ was falsified."
R.H. CHARLES (Jowett Lectures, 1898-99)
"The success of the Christian claim or its failure rests to a very large extent on the theory of the second coming."
Samuel Levine
Agnostics, Muslims, and Jews are quick to taunt Christians due to the supposed failure of Christ's prophecies regarding the revelation of his second coming. Many Christians expositors, hoping to answer this objection, have proposed theories that attempt to explain away the necessity to believe that Christ ever intended to be manifested within a single generation (Matthew 24:34).
The mistake comes in expecting Christ's manifestation to be a visible, historical event, when it is actually a spiritual reality which is not bound by time. Therefore, much like Christ's first coming, the only non-occurrence was in the manner of fulfillment that was expected.
"Will there ever be an end to all our ceaseless talk about the delay of the Parousia? What delays its coming is not the Parousia, but our awakening."
Karl Barth
The belief in the failure of Christ’s prophecies stem from the attempts of a Gentile-dominated church after A.D. 70 trying to understand Jewish concepts. This lack of understanding should not amaze us, for most of the Jewish world misunderstood the prophecies of His first coming, so why should we expect any difference in recognition of His second coming by Gentile interpreters?
If any literature was written by them after the fall of Jerusalem that taught the return of Christ in that event, there is good reason to believe that it was suppressed or beyond the understanding of the dominant Gentile church. Careful study of Rabbinic sources shows that the remnant of the Jewish nation actively destroyed all apocalyptic works speaking of an imminent end after A.D. 70 because of its embarrassment to them. Hence, suppression of Jewish/Christian material referring to fulfilled imminence was a most likely target of this group also.
Another factor related to this is N. B. Stonehouse’s mention of a definite division in the church after A.D. 70. Syrian Christianity was isolated from the Greek world because of its Aramaic language. This barrier caused a more pure line of understanding and tradition. Therefore, the Greek church considered the Syrian church "heretical" because they rejected the Greek’s sensual chiliasm and held to a spiritual/figurative understanding of Jewish/Christian apocalyptic. This distaste for sensual chiliasm was a major factor in their total rejection of the Apocalypse in the early Syrian texts and canon. It wasn’t till later that Revelation was added, and then with a heading that placed its date in reign of Nero, before the A.D. 70 event.
Interpretation of Scripture by the Gentile-dominated church was caught up in the idea of a physical return and a literal interpretation of the very figurative Jewish apocalyptic language found in the book of Revelation and other OT & NT prophecies. Yet, even in the early church, Christ’s return was seen by the Jewish Christians to be a spiritual change in the authority of the Kingdom. Such can be seen in the "jumping the gun" of the early church in the teaching that the Lord had come before A.D. 70, (II Thess. 2:1-2). This premature teaching was dangerous to the early church since it implied an acceptance of the Temple cultus, thus putting Christianity in the category of just a new sect of Judaism, rather than the fulfillment of the whole thing. The fact that they believed the Lord had come before A.D. 70 shows that they interpreted His return as a spiritual coming in the early church. Even though they were premature, it only supports our early research that they expected His return just as He said, in that generation.
There are only two main verses that have loosely been used to assume a physical return of Christ by the Greek-dominated church. The first is Acts 1:9-11 (the Ascension), "he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight," after this the two angels reassured the disciples saying, "this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven." (emphasis mine, tj.) The emphasis here is not on the transfigured form, but on the manner in which he ascended and would return, "in a cloud." This event was a reaffirmation of Jesus’ being the apocalyptic "Son of Man" spoken of in Daniel and the Gospels. That he, "the Son of Man," came with the clouds of heaven (Daniel 7:13), is later emphatically stated to be fulfilled in His return, in numerous places (Matt.16:27f; 24:30; Mark 13:26; and Luke 21:27).
The second verse under consideration is Revelation 1:7, "Behold, he cometh in the clouds and every eye shall see him, every one which pierced him: and all the kindred of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen." Here one finds the same apocalyptic "Son of Man" imagery regarding His "coming in the clouds." The language of the text shows that literally, those that would see him were even who had "pierced him", namely the Jews (Acts 2:23,36; 5:30). In His parousia in judgment on the Jewish theocracy, those that had rejected Him would now "see" the truth of Jesus’ claims and their error, i.e. a nationalistic expectation of the Kingdom (Matthew 26:64). Truly, upon a close investigation of the subject, there are not any verses in the New Testament that point to any other manner of coming other than a spiritual parousia of Christ in a judgment of God’s enemies at the redemptive-historical end-time of the Old Covenant system. In fulfilling this event, the bondage of the non-occurence theory is vanquished. (Chapter 13 of his book, "THE MESSIAH’S RETURN, Delayed? Fulfilled? or Double-Fulfillment? ")
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JEWISH SOURCES
Prophets and Prophecy
"Jesus specifically told his disciples that he would return within their lifetimes. "This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled." Paul also predicted that Jesus would return within their lifetimes.. So, we can see that Paul predicted an event that did not come about... Moses taught us that this is how we know that people like Paul were false prophets."
"The parousia, the “second coming” of Jesus, provided an explanation for the failure of an individual that some people professed to be the “messiah.” It allowed his followers to continue to believe in his mission and of the mission of others after him. Predictions and descriptions of doomsday abound, as do the revisions of timetables once the predicted date has passed."
Jews for Judaism Website
"Jesus did not come back "quickly," as promised, to judge mankind. The time has long past that one can claim Jesus will come back "quickly." Thus, what we have in Revelation 22:20 is a false prophecy."
"These various statements reveal that the myth of the "second coming" was explained in different ways as the interval following Jesus' death lengthened."
"Apparently, the early Christian community was convinced of the imminent return of Jesus, as the Messiah, and the inauguration of the kingdom of God. It never happened."
"The expectation of Paul and the other New Testament authors was for the speedy arrival of the second coming in their generation. The use of "for yet a little while," "shortly," "the time is near," and "I am coming quickly" point to the utter failure of the predictions that Jesus was coming a second time to do what he did not accomplish the first time."
"There was to be fulfillment within the lifetimes of certain individuals alive at the time Jesus made the promise and following upon certain cataclysmic events which were to be witnessed by that generation. These events never occurred and the time for their occurrence has long since passed."
"The second epistle of Peter is a late attempt to explain away the obvious fact that the second coming did not arrive at its appointed time."
"It should be noted that these "tribulations" were not fulfilled in the events of the years 66-73 C.E., the period of the First Jewish-Roman War. Jesus' own statement shows that the culmination of the "tribulation period" was to see the parousia, the second coming of Jesus (Mark 13:26; Matthew 24:3, 30), which certainly did not occur during the war nor subsequently."
Max I. Dimont (1971)
"Like the Christians, who continually had to postpone Judgment Day because Jesus failed to keep his appointment for a second coming, so the Jews, from century to century, had to postpone the arrival date of their messiah by new calculation." (The Indestructible Jews, p. 174)
Aryeh Kaplan (1973)
"The main task of the Messiah was to bring the world back to G-d, and to abolish all war, suffering and injustice from the world. Clearly, Jesus did not accomplish this. In order to get around this failure on the part of Jesus, Christians invented the doctrine of the "Second Coming." ..All the prophecies that Jesus did not fulfill the first time are supposed to be taken care of the second time around. However, the Jewish Bible offers absolutely no evidence to support the Christian doctrine of a "Second Coming." [Orthodox Rabbi from "Jesus and the Bible," in The Real Messiah (reprinted from Jewish Youth, June 1973 Tammuz 5733, No. 40), 57.)]
Joseph Klausner (1925)
"This two-fold misapprehension of Jesus -- the nearness of the kingdom of heaven and his Messiahship - perpetuated his memory and created Christianity. Had not the disciples expected his second coming Christianity could never have come into being: even as a Jewish sect.. The Jews as a whole could not, however, follow after a belief based on so slight a foundation.. Yet again, through the preaching of his messianic claims, after he had failed to manifest himself to the world again, in his power and glory, he became, in spite of himself, a "sacrifice," a "ransom for many." [Jesus of Nazareth: His Life, Times, and Teaching (New York: Macmillen, 1925),405]
Samuel Levine (1980)
"The success of the Christian claim or its failure rests to a very large extent on the theory of the second coming.. The Jews never had the concept of a second coming, and since it was the Jews themselves who first taught the notion of a Messiah, via the Jewish prophets, it seems quite reasonable to respect their opinion more than anyone else's.. the theory of the second coming is not based on Jewish tradition or sources, and is a theory born from desperation." [You Take Jesus, I'll Take God: How to Refute Christian Missionaries (Los Angeles: Hamoroh Press, 1980), 15, 23, 49.]
John P. Meier
"And he said to them, 'Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power [en dunamei]'." - Mark 9:1 (Matthew 16:28 // Luke 9:27)
"(This saying was) most likely...produced by early Christians who sought to reassure themselves of Christ's coming in glory as the years passed by with no parousia in sight." (John P. Meier, A Marginal Jew - Rethinking the Historical Jesus, Vol. 2.)
Gerald Sigal
Question: What does "this generation" mean in the verse, "Truly I say to you this generation will not pass away until all these things take place" (Matthew 24:32, Mark 13:30, Luke 21:32)?
Answer: Mark's Jesus, after listing all the tribulations that the world must endure before he returns a second time (Mark 13:3-29, see also Matthew 24:3-33) exclaims: "Truly I say to you this generation will not pass away until all these things take place" (Mark 13:30, Matthew 24:34, Luke 21:32). Jesus was directing this remark specifically to his contemporary generation and not to some unknown future generation. Jesus, addressing his disciples "privately" (Mark 13:3, Matthew 24:3) listed what was going to happen before his return. He then added, "Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill you and you shall be hated of all nations for my names sake" (Matthew 24:9). Concerning this, Mark's version adds, "he that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved" (Mark 13:13). Thus, it appears from this last remark that at least some of the disciples would survive and be present to witness the second coming and the end of time.
According to Mark and Matthew, Jesus expected the tribulation period to occur before the last of his generation died out. Thus, a limit is given within which the prophecies are to be fulfilled. It should be noted that these "tribulations" were not fulfilled in the events of the years 66-73 C.E., the period of the First Jewish- Roman War. Jesus' own statement shows that the culmination of the "tribulation period" was to see the parousia, the second coming of Jesus (Mark 13:26; Matthew 24:3, 30), which certainly did not occur during the war nor subsequently.
All of Jesus' contemporaries died without seeing the fulfillment of his tribulation prophesy. As a result, Jesus' words, especially the expression, "this generation" have undergone reinterpretation. Nevertheless, the translation of genea is "generation" or as Thayer explains it, giving Matthew 24:34 and Mark 13:30 as examples, "the whole multitude of men living at the time . . . used especially of the Jewish race living at one and the same period" (Joseph Henry Thayer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Publishing House, 1979, p. 112). G. Abbott-Smith writes that the Greek word genea means "race, stock, family," but in the New Testament always "generation" (G. Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, 2nd ed., Edinburgh: T.&T. Clarke, 1923, p. 89). Arndt and Gingrich note that the term means "literally, those descended from a common ancestor," but "basically, the sum total of those born at the same time, expanded to include all those living at a given time, generation, contemporaries" (W.F. Arndt and F.W. Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1957, p. 153).
There is no need to interpret the verse, "Truly I say to you this generation will not pass away until all these things take place" otherwise than that Jesus was speaking here of his contemporary generation. The expression "this generation" appears fourteen times in the Gospels and always applies to Jesus' contemporaries. That generation passed away without Jesus returning. Therefore, we are confronted by another unfulfilled promise by Jesus. Jesus did not return during the period he himself specifically designated. Some commentators are of the opinion that "this generation" means the generation alive when this prophecy comes to pass, which they believe has yet to occur. However, the text shows that Jesus was not speaking to an unspecified future generation; he was speaking to his contemporary disciples and directed this prophecy to them personally. " (Jews for Judaism)
Pinchas Stolper (1973)
"The idea of a second coming is a pure rationalization of Jesus' failure to function in any way as a Messiah, or to fulfill any of the prophecies of the Torah or the Prophets. The idea is purely a Christian invention, with no foundation in the Bible." [Orthodox Rabbi writing "Was Jesus the Messiah Let's Examine the Facts," in The Real Messiah (reprinted from Jewish Youth, June 1973 Tammuz 5733, No. 40), 46-47.)]
MUSLIM SOURCES
answering-christianity.com (current)
"At first, the Christian community expected an imminent return of Christ .. This hope carried on in the second century. When the second coming failed to occur, the church organized itself as a permanent institution under the leadership of its bishops. This, however, did not stop the predictions of "the second coming" .. Muslims too believe in the second coming of Jesus (pbuh). However, Muslims are told that Jesus (pbuh) was not forsaken by God to the Jews to be killed, rather, he was raised by God and it was made to appear to those present that he was crucified (Jesus' apostle Barnabus tells us that it was Judas the traitor who was taken to be crucified) [See : Qur'an 4:155-157]. Muslims are also told that he will not return to earth until just before the end of time, and not that he will return before the death of his own generation, as stated above." [Answering Christianity.com "The Ultimate Test of Jesus: Jesus' second coming and 'grace.']
Neal Robinson (1274)
"The first generation of Christians were convinced that Jesus would shortly return in glory. Despite the fact that this did not happen in their lifetime, the belief that he would return for the final judgment lingered on and became enshrined in the creeds. Throughout the history of the Church this belief has been the subject of renewed speculation during times of social and political upheaval... The Qur'an itself does not explicitly refer to Jesus' return but the classical commentators detected allusions to it in 4:159 and 43:61 and occasionally elsewhere." [Christ in Islam and Christianity (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991), 78.]
KORAN 004.159
YUSUFALI: And there is none of the People of the Book but must believe in him before his death; and on the Day of Judgment he will be a witness against them;-
PICKTHAL: There is not one of the People of the Scripture but will believe in him before his death, and on the Day of Resurrection he will be a witness against them -
SHAKIR: And there is not one of the followers of the Book but most certainly believes in this before his death, and on the day of resurrection he (Isa) shall be a witness against them.
KORAN 043.061
YUSUFALI: And (Jesus) shall be a Sign (for the coming of) the Hour (of Judgment): therefore have no doubt about the (Hour), but follow ye Me: this is a Straight Way.
PICKTHAL: And lo! verily there is knowledge of the Hour. So doubt ye not concerning it, but follow Me. This is the right path.
SHAKIR: And most surely it is a knowledge of the hour, therefore have no doubt about it and follow me: this is the right path.
VARIOUS SOURCES
"The Lord's return - has been postponed for the sake of Christians themselves.. it is only temporarily suspended. Therefore, and this is the warning of the Shepherd of Hermas . do good works for your purification, for if you delay too long, . you will not be included."
(AD 150), Shepherd of Hermas
Thomas Aquinas (1274)
"This Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world . . . and then shall the consummation come." But the Gospel of Christ is already preached throughout the whole world: and yet the consummation has not yet come. Therefore the Gospel of Christ is not the Gospel of the kingdom, but another Gospel, that of the Holy Ghost, is to come yet, like unto another Law." (Summa Theologica, vol. 2, 1292)
Karl Barth
"Will there ever be an end to all our ceaseless talk about the delay of the Parousia? How can the coming of that which does not enter in ever be delayed? The End of which the New Testament speaks is no temporal event... What delays its coming is not the Parousia, but our awakening..." (Karl Barth, The Epistle to the Romans, pp.500-501)
G.C. Berkower (1972)
"Consistent Eschatology sees the expectation of the coming of the Kingdom within the first generation of believers as the heart and soul of the early church. Clearly we cannot simply ignore this view of eschatology.. we are obligated to deal with the accented nearness of the Kingdom found in the New Testament. We read there that the end of all things is at hand; that the believer is to be sane and sober (1 Pet. 4:7); that the Lord is at hand (Phil. 4:5); that the judge is standing at the door (James 5:8,9); that the time is near (Rev. 1:3). These passages have constantly presented problems for New Testament preaching. What does the New Testament mean by the last days, the last hour? What does it mean when it says that "the night is far gone, the day is at hand" (Rom. 13:12)? In what sense has the end of the ages come upon the community of believers (1 Cor. 10:11)? How are Paul's words to be explained when he says that God will soon (en tachei) crush Satan (Rom 16:20)?" (The Return of Christ p. 82)
"Concerning the gifts of the promise, the letter to the Hebrews is unmistakably clear: "For yet a little while, and the coming one shall come and shall not tarry' (Heb. 10:37). This note of promise is the opposite of delay. But is this in fact not an affirmation of the thesis of consistent eschatology, which sees this brief time period in terms of the first generation as the central motif of the New Testament expectation?" (ibid. pp. 82, 82)
"Yet is it not reasonable to wonder whether consistent eschatology may not have had a point after all? Years, decades, and centuries have passed since the New Testament was written." (ibid, p. 94)
"So we are face-to-face with the theme of the delay of the parousia, a theme that has been the concern of many twentieth-century scholars." (p. 65)
"...the actual couse of history did not correspond to these repeated references to the nearness of the parousia." (ibid. p. 83)
"Delay" does not mean cancellation, but simply implies that what is expected has been postponed until some future date. Still, a delay, particularly a long one, can raise serious doubts about the actual fulfillment... The whole direction of the Christian community has always been toward the future, based, not on some futuristic fantasy, but on the promise of the living God." (The Return of Christ, p. 66)
Rudolph Bultmann (1957)
"The problem of Eschatology grew out of the fact that the expected end of the world failed to arrive, that the 'Son of man' did not appear in the clouds of heaven, that history went on, and that the eschatological community could not fail to recognize that it had become historical phenomenon and that the Christian faith had taken on the shape of a new religion." (History and Eschatology: the Presence of Eternity, p. 38)
"The mythical eschatology is untenable for the simple reason that the parousia of Christ never took place as the New Testament expected.. (Kerygma and Myth [1961], p.5)
R.H. Charles (1898-99)
"We conclude, therefore, that according to the teaching of Christ, the parousia was to be within the current generation. We must, accordingly, admit that this expectation of Christ was falsified. But the error is not material." (Eschatology: A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life, Jowett Lectures, Wipf and Stock, p. 387)
Nils Alstrup Dahl (1977)
"Today, nineteen hundred years later, we know that the future did not unfold as Paul had hoped and expected. His journey to Jerusalem with the collection he had gathered did not excite the envy of his compatriots in the way he had hoped. Israel has not accepted Christ, the parousia has not yet occurred." (Studies in Paul, p. 157)
Arthur Conan Doyle (1919)
Then comes prophecy, which is a real and yet a fitful and often delusive form of mediumship -- never so delusive as among the early Christians, who seem all to have mistaken the approaching fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple, which they could dimly see, as being the end of the world. This mistake is repeated so often and so clearly that it is really not honest to ignore or deny it." (The Vital Message, p.118)
THE "PAROUSIA DELAY"
"Postponement" Explanations for the Mistaken "Non-Occurrence" of the Second Coming
AN EXAMPLE OF THIS HORRIBLE ERROR :
"We conclude, therefore, that according to the teaching of Christ, the parousia was to be within the current generation. We must, accordingly, admit that this expectation of Christ was falsified."
R.H. CHARLES (Jowett Lectures, 1898-99)
"The success of the Christian claim or its failure rests to a very large extent on the theory of the second coming."
Samuel Levine
Agnostics, Muslims, and Jews are quick to taunt Christians due to the supposed failure of Christ's prophecies regarding the revelation of his second coming. Many Christians expositors, hoping to answer this objection, have proposed theories that attempt to explain away the necessity to believe that Christ ever intended to be manifested within a single generation (Matthew 24:34).
The mistake comes in expecting Christ's manifestation to be a visible, historical event, when it is actually a spiritual reality which is not bound by time. Therefore, much like Christ's first coming, the only non-occurrence was in the manner of fulfillment that was expected.
"Will there ever be an end to all our ceaseless talk about the delay of the Parousia? What delays its coming is not the Parousia, but our awakening."
Karl Barth
The belief in the failure of Christ’s prophecies stem from the attempts of a Gentile-dominated church after A.D. 70 trying to understand Jewish concepts. This lack of understanding should not amaze us, for most of the Jewish world misunderstood the prophecies of His first coming, so why should we expect any difference in recognition of His second coming by Gentile interpreters?
If any literature was written by them after the fall of Jerusalem that taught the return of Christ in that event, there is good reason to believe that it was suppressed or beyond the understanding of the dominant Gentile church. Careful study of Rabbinic sources shows that the remnant of the Jewish nation actively destroyed all apocalyptic works speaking of an imminent end after A.D. 70 because of its embarrassment to them. Hence, suppression of Jewish/Christian material referring to fulfilled imminence was a most likely target of this group also.
Another factor related to this is N. B. Stonehouse’s mention of a definite division in the church after A.D. 70. Syrian Christianity was isolated from the Greek world because of its Aramaic language. This barrier caused a more pure line of understanding and tradition. Therefore, the Greek church considered the Syrian church "heretical" because they rejected the Greek’s sensual chiliasm and held to a spiritual/figurative understanding of Jewish/Christian apocalyptic. This distaste for sensual chiliasm was a major factor in their total rejection of the Apocalypse in the early Syrian texts and canon. It wasn’t till later that Revelation was added, and then with a heading that placed its date in reign of Nero, before the A.D. 70 event.
Interpretation of Scripture by the Gentile-dominated church was caught up in the idea of a physical return and a literal interpretation of the very figurative Jewish apocalyptic language found in the book of Revelation and other OT & NT prophecies. Yet, even in the early church, Christ’s return was seen by the Jewish Christians to be a spiritual change in the authority of the Kingdom. Such can be seen in the "jumping the gun" of the early church in the teaching that the Lord had come before A.D. 70, (II Thess. 2:1-2). This premature teaching was dangerous to the early church since it implied an acceptance of the Temple cultus, thus putting Christianity in the category of just a new sect of Judaism, rather than the fulfillment of the whole thing. The fact that they believed the Lord had come before A.D. 70 shows that they interpreted His return as a spiritual coming in the early church. Even though they were premature, it only supports our early research that they expected His return just as He said, in that generation.
There are only two main verses that have loosely been used to assume a physical return of Christ by the Greek-dominated church. The first is Acts 1:9-11 (the Ascension), "he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight," after this the two angels reassured the disciples saying, "this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven." (emphasis mine, tj.) The emphasis here is not on the transfigured form, but on the manner in which he ascended and would return, "in a cloud." This event was a reaffirmation of Jesus’ being the apocalyptic "Son of Man" spoken of in Daniel and the Gospels. That he, "the Son of Man," came with the clouds of heaven (Daniel 7:13), is later emphatically stated to be fulfilled in His return, in numerous places (Matt.16:27f; 24:30; Mark 13:26; and Luke 21:27).
The second verse under consideration is Revelation 1:7, "Behold, he cometh in the clouds and every eye shall see him, every one which pierced him: and all the kindred of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen." Here one finds the same apocalyptic "Son of Man" imagery regarding His "coming in the clouds." The language of the text shows that literally, those that would see him were even who had "pierced him", namely the Jews (Acts 2:23,36; 5:30). In His parousia in judgment on the Jewish theocracy, those that had rejected Him would now "see" the truth of Jesus’ claims and their error, i.e. a nationalistic expectation of the Kingdom (Matthew 26:64). Truly, upon a close investigation of the subject, there are not any verses in the New Testament that point to any other manner of coming other than a spiritual parousia of Christ in a judgment of God’s enemies at the redemptive-historical end-time of the Old Covenant system. In fulfilling this event, the bondage of the non-occurence theory is vanquished. (Chapter 13 of his book, "THE MESSIAH’S RETURN, Delayed? Fulfilled? or Double-Fulfillment? ")
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JEWISH SOURCES
Prophets and Prophecy
"Jesus specifically told his disciples that he would return within their lifetimes. "This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled." Paul also predicted that Jesus would return within their lifetimes.. So, we can see that Paul predicted an event that did not come about... Moses taught us that this is how we know that people like Paul were false prophets."
"The parousia, the “second coming” of Jesus, provided an explanation for the failure of an individual that some people professed to be the “messiah.” It allowed his followers to continue to believe in his mission and of the mission of others after him. Predictions and descriptions of doomsday abound, as do the revisions of timetables once the predicted date has passed."
Jews for Judaism Website
"Jesus did not come back "quickly," as promised, to judge mankind. The time has long past that one can claim Jesus will come back "quickly." Thus, what we have in Revelation 22:20 is a false prophecy."
"These various statements reveal that the myth of the "second coming" was explained in different ways as the interval following Jesus' death lengthened."
"Apparently, the early Christian community was convinced of the imminent return of Jesus, as the Messiah, and the inauguration of the kingdom of God. It never happened."
"The expectation of Paul and the other New Testament authors was for the speedy arrival of the second coming in their generation. The use of "for yet a little while," "shortly," "the time is near," and "I am coming quickly" point to the utter failure of the predictions that Jesus was coming a second time to do what he did not accomplish the first time."
"There was to be fulfillment within the lifetimes of certain individuals alive at the time Jesus made the promise and following upon certain cataclysmic events which were to be witnessed by that generation. These events never occurred and the time for their occurrence has long since passed."
"The second epistle of Peter is a late attempt to explain away the obvious fact that the second coming did not arrive at its appointed time."
"It should be noted that these "tribulations" were not fulfilled in the events of the years 66-73 C.E., the period of the First Jewish-Roman War. Jesus' own statement shows that the culmination of the "tribulation period" was to see the parousia, the second coming of Jesus (Mark 13:26; Matthew 24:3, 30), which certainly did not occur during the war nor subsequently."
Max I. Dimont (1971)
"Like the Christians, who continually had to postpone Judgment Day because Jesus failed to keep his appointment for a second coming, so the Jews, from century to century, had to postpone the arrival date of their messiah by new calculation." (The Indestructible Jews, p. 174)
Aryeh Kaplan (1973)
"The main task of the Messiah was to bring the world back to G-d, and to abolish all war, suffering and injustice from the world. Clearly, Jesus did not accomplish this. In order to get around this failure on the part of Jesus, Christians invented the doctrine of the "Second Coming." ..All the prophecies that Jesus did not fulfill the first time are supposed to be taken care of the second time around. However, the Jewish Bible offers absolutely no evidence to support the Christian doctrine of a "Second Coming." [Orthodox Rabbi from "Jesus and the Bible," in The Real Messiah (reprinted from Jewish Youth, June 1973 Tammuz 5733, No. 40), 57.)]
Joseph Klausner (1925)
"This two-fold misapprehension of Jesus -- the nearness of the kingdom of heaven and his Messiahship - perpetuated his memory and created Christianity. Had not the disciples expected his second coming Christianity could never have come into being: even as a Jewish sect.. The Jews as a whole could not, however, follow after a belief based on so slight a foundation.. Yet again, through the preaching of his messianic claims, after he had failed to manifest himself to the world again, in his power and glory, he became, in spite of himself, a "sacrifice," a "ransom for many." [Jesus of Nazareth: His Life, Times, and Teaching (New York: Macmillen, 1925),405]
Samuel Levine (1980)
"The success of the Christian claim or its failure rests to a very large extent on the theory of the second coming.. The Jews never had the concept of a second coming, and since it was the Jews themselves who first taught the notion of a Messiah, via the Jewish prophets, it seems quite reasonable to respect their opinion more than anyone else's.. the theory of the second coming is not based on Jewish tradition or sources, and is a theory born from desperation." [You Take Jesus, I'll Take God: How to Refute Christian Missionaries (Los Angeles: Hamoroh Press, 1980), 15, 23, 49.]
John P. Meier
"And he said to them, 'Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power [en dunamei]'." - Mark 9:1 (Matthew 16:28 // Luke 9:27)
"(This saying was) most likely...produced by early Christians who sought to reassure themselves of Christ's coming in glory as the years passed by with no parousia in sight." (John P. Meier, A Marginal Jew - Rethinking the Historical Jesus, Vol. 2.)
Gerald Sigal
Question: What does "this generation" mean in the verse, "Truly I say to you this generation will not pass away until all these things take place" (Matthew 24:32, Mark 13:30, Luke 21:32)?
Answer: Mark's Jesus, after listing all the tribulations that the world must endure before he returns a second time (Mark 13:3-29, see also Matthew 24:3-33) exclaims: "Truly I say to you this generation will not pass away until all these things take place" (Mark 13:30, Matthew 24:34, Luke 21:32). Jesus was directing this remark specifically to his contemporary generation and not to some unknown future generation. Jesus, addressing his disciples "privately" (Mark 13:3, Matthew 24:3) listed what was going to happen before his return. He then added, "Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill you and you shall be hated of all nations for my names sake" (Matthew 24:9). Concerning this, Mark's version adds, "he that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved" (Mark 13:13). Thus, it appears from this last remark that at least some of the disciples would survive and be present to witness the second coming and the end of time.
According to Mark and Matthew, Jesus expected the tribulation period to occur before the last of his generation died out. Thus, a limit is given within which the prophecies are to be fulfilled. It should be noted that these "tribulations" were not fulfilled in the events of the years 66-73 C.E., the period of the First Jewish- Roman War. Jesus' own statement shows that the culmination of the "tribulation period" was to see the parousia, the second coming of Jesus (Mark 13:26; Matthew 24:3, 30), which certainly did not occur during the war nor subsequently.
All of Jesus' contemporaries died without seeing the fulfillment of his tribulation prophesy. As a result, Jesus' words, especially the expression, "this generation" have undergone reinterpretation. Nevertheless, the translation of genea is "generation" or as Thayer explains it, giving Matthew 24:34 and Mark 13:30 as examples, "the whole multitude of men living at the time . . . used especially of the Jewish race living at one and the same period" (Joseph Henry Thayer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Publishing House, 1979, p. 112). G. Abbott-Smith writes that the Greek word genea means "race, stock, family," but in the New Testament always "generation" (G. Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, 2nd ed., Edinburgh: T.&T. Clarke, 1923, p. 89). Arndt and Gingrich note that the term means "literally, those descended from a common ancestor," but "basically, the sum total of those born at the same time, expanded to include all those living at a given time, generation, contemporaries" (W.F. Arndt and F.W. Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1957, p. 153).
There is no need to interpret the verse, "Truly I say to you this generation will not pass away until all these things take place" otherwise than that Jesus was speaking here of his contemporary generation. The expression "this generation" appears fourteen times in the Gospels and always applies to Jesus' contemporaries. That generation passed away without Jesus returning. Therefore, we are confronted by another unfulfilled promise by Jesus. Jesus did not return during the period he himself specifically designated. Some commentators are of the opinion that "this generation" means the generation alive when this prophecy comes to pass, which they believe has yet to occur. However, the text shows that Jesus was not speaking to an unspecified future generation; he was speaking to his contemporary disciples and directed this prophecy to them personally. " (Jews for Judaism)
Pinchas Stolper (1973)
"The idea of a second coming is a pure rationalization of Jesus' failure to function in any way as a Messiah, or to fulfill any of the prophecies of the Torah or the Prophets. The idea is purely a Christian invention, with no foundation in the Bible." [Orthodox Rabbi writing "Was Jesus the Messiah Let's Examine the Facts," in The Real Messiah (reprinted from Jewish Youth, June 1973 Tammuz 5733, No. 40), 46-47.)]
MUSLIM SOURCES
answering-christianity.com (current)
"At first, the Christian community expected an imminent return of Christ .. This hope carried on in the second century. When the second coming failed to occur, the church organized itself as a permanent institution under the leadership of its bishops. This, however, did not stop the predictions of "the second coming" .. Muslims too believe in the second coming of Jesus (pbuh). However, Muslims are told that Jesus (pbuh) was not forsaken by God to the Jews to be killed, rather, he was raised by God and it was made to appear to those present that he was crucified (Jesus' apostle Barnabus tells us that it was Judas the traitor who was taken to be crucified) [See : Qur'an 4:155-157]. Muslims are also told that he will not return to earth until just before the end of time, and not that he will return before the death of his own generation, as stated above." [Answering Christianity.com "The Ultimate Test of Jesus: Jesus' second coming and 'grace.']
Neal Robinson (1274)
"The first generation of Christians were convinced that Jesus would shortly return in glory. Despite the fact that this did not happen in their lifetime, the belief that he would return for the final judgment lingered on and became enshrined in the creeds. Throughout the history of the Church this belief has been the subject of renewed speculation during times of social and political upheaval... The Qur'an itself does not explicitly refer to Jesus' return but the classical commentators detected allusions to it in 4:159 and 43:61 and occasionally elsewhere." [Christ in Islam and Christianity (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991), 78.]
KORAN 004.159
YUSUFALI: And there is none of the People of the Book but must believe in him before his death; and on the Day of Judgment he will be a witness against them;-
PICKTHAL: There is not one of the People of the Scripture but will believe in him before his death, and on the Day of Resurrection he will be a witness against them -
SHAKIR: And there is not one of the followers of the Book but most certainly believes in this before his death, and on the day of resurrection he (Isa) shall be a witness against them.
KORAN 043.061
YUSUFALI: And (Jesus) shall be a Sign (for the coming of) the Hour (of Judgment): therefore have no doubt about the (Hour), but follow ye Me: this is a Straight Way.
PICKTHAL: And lo! verily there is knowledge of the Hour. So doubt ye not concerning it, but follow Me. This is the right path.
SHAKIR: And most surely it is a knowledge of the hour, therefore have no doubt about it and follow me: this is the right path.
VARIOUS SOURCES
"The Lord's return - has been postponed for the sake of Christians themselves.. it is only temporarily suspended. Therefore, and this is the warning of the Shepherd of Hermas . do good works for your purification, for if you delay too long, . you will not be included."
(AD 150), Shepherd of Hermas
Thomas Aquinas (1274)
"This Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world . . . and then shall the consummation come." But the Gospel of Christ is already preached throughout the whole world: and yet the consummation has not yet come. Therefore the Gospel of Christ is not the Gospel of the kingdom, but another Gospel, that of the Holy Ghost, is to come yet, like unto another Law." (Summa Theologica, vol. 2, 1292)
Karl Barth
"Will there ever be an end to all our ceaseless talk about the delay of the Parousia? How can the coming of that which does not enter in ever be delayed? The End of which the New Testament speaks is no temporal event... What delays its coming is not the Parousia, but our awakening..." (Karl Barth, The Epistle to the Romans, pp.500-501)
G.C. Berkower (1972)
"Consistent Eschatology sees the expectation of the coming of the Kingdom within the first generation of believers as the heart and soul of the early church. Clearly we cannot simply ignore this view of eschatology.. we are obligated to deal with the accented nearness of the Kingdom found in the New Testament. We read there that the end of all things is at hand; that the believer is to be sane and sober (1 Pet. 4:7); that the Lord is at hand (Phil. 4:5); that the judge is standing at the door (James 5:8,9); that the time is near (Rev. 1:3). These passages have constantly presented problems for New Testament preaching. What does the New Testament mean by the last days, the last hour? What does it mean when it says that "the night is far gone, the day is at hand" (Rom. 13:12)? In what sense has the end of the ages come upon the community of believers (1 Cor. 10:11)? How are Paul's words to be explained when he says that God will soon (en tachei) crush Satan (Rom 16:20)?" (The Return of Christ p. 82)
"Concerning the gifts of the promise, the letter to the Hebrews is unmistakably clear: "For yet a little while, and the coming one shall come and shall not tarry' (Heb. 10:37). This note of promise is the opposite of delay. But is this in fact not an affirmation of the thesis of consistent eschatology, which sees this brief time period in terms of the first generation as the central motif of the New Testament expectation?" (ibid. pp. 82, 82)
"Yet is it not reasonable to wonder whether consistent eschatology may not have had a point after all? Years, decades, and centuries have passed since the New Testament was written." (ibid, p. 94)
"So we are face-to-face with the theme of the delay of the parousia, a theme that has been the concern of many twentieth-century scholars." (p. 65)
"...the actual couse of history did not correspond to these repeated references to the nearness of the parousia." (ibid. p. 83)
"Delay" does not mean cancellation, but simply implies that what is expected has been postponed until some future date. Still, a delay, particularly a long one, can raise serious doubts about the actual fulfillment... The whole direction of the Christian community has always been toward the future, based, not on some futuristic fantasy, but on the promise of the living God." (The Return of Christ, p. 66)
Rudolph Bultmann (1957)
"The problem of Eschatology grew out of the fact that the expected end of the world failed to arrive, that the 'Son of man' did not appear in the clouds of heaven, that history went on, and that the eschatological community could not fail to recognize that it had become historical phenomenon and that the Christian faith had taken on the shape of a new religion." (History and Eschatology: the Presence of Eternity, p. 38)
"The mythical eschatology is untenable for the simple reason that the parousia of Christ never took place as the New Testament expected.. (Kerygma and Myth [1961], p.5)
R.H. Charles (1898-99)
"We conclude, therefore, that according to the teaching of Christ, the parousia was to be within the current generation. We must, accordingly, admit that this expectation of Christ was falsified. But the error is not material." (Eschatology: A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life, Jowett Lectures, Wipf and Stock, p. 387)
Nils Alstrup Dahl (1977)
"Today, nineteen hundred years later, we know that the future did not unfold as Paul had hoped and expected. His journey to Jerusalem with the collection he had gathered did not excite the envy of his compatriots in the way he had hoped. Israel has not accepted Christ, the parousia has not yet occurred." (Studies in Paul, p. 157)
Arthur Conan Doyle (1919)
Then comes prophecy, which is a real and yet a fitful and often delusive form of mediumship -- never so delusive as among the early Christians, who seem all to have mistaken the approaching fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple, which they could dimly see, as being the end of the world. This mistake is repeated so often and so clearly that it is really not honest to ignore or deny it." (The Vital Message, p.118)