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False Anointed Ones at the End Time: Difference between revisions
False Anointed Ones at the End Time (view source)
Revision as of 02:39, 10 September 2018
, 6 years ago→The biblical problems with this teaching
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There are some significant problems with this teaching when one looks at what scripture says. It should be noted that all false doctrine is based on scripture. And all false doctrine is plausible. BUT when one studies false doctrine in light of ALL scripture, the errors in the teaching are evident. | There are some significant problems with this teaching when one looks at what scripture says. It should be noted that all false doctrine is based on scripture. And all false doctrine is plausible. BUT when one studies false doctrine in light of ALL scripture, the errors in the teaching are evident. | ||
==The rains falls on the just and the unjust== | ==The rains falls on the just and the unjust== | ||
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Matthew 5:43-48 is teaching us that we should love our enemies just as God does. William Branham has taken Matthew 5:45 out of context as a proof text. But when you read it in context, it does not mean what he wants it to mean. | Matthew 5:43-48 is teaching us that we should love our enemies just as God does. William Branham has taken Matthew 5:45 out of context as a proof text. But when you read it in context, it does not mean what he wants it to mean. | ||
==Does Matthew 24:24 apply at the end-time?== | |||
It is important to read the words in Matthew 24:24 with those that follow shortly after in Matt 24:34: | |||
:''Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.<ref>The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Mt 24:34</ref> | |||
A similar passage appears in Mark 13:30, shortly after the corresponding words of Mark 13:22: | |||
:''For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.''<ref>The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Mk 13:22.</ref> ''...Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.''<ref>The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Mk 13:30. | |||
“This generation” is used frequently in Matthew’s gospel for Jesus’ contemporaries, especially in a context of God’s impending judgment: see Matt. 11:16; Matt. 12:39, 41–42, 45; Matt. 16:4; Matt. 17:17 and especially Matt. 23:36 where God’s judgment on “this generation” leads up to Jesus’ first prediction of the devastation of the temple in Matt. 23:38. | |||
It may safely be concluded that if it had not been for the embarrassment caused by supposing that Jesus was here talking about his Parousia (future return), no one would have thought of suggesting any other meaning for “this generation,” such as “the Jewish race” or “human beings in general” or “all the generations of Judaism that reject him” or even “this kind” (meaning scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees). Such broad senses, even if they were textually possible, would offer no help in response to the disciples’ question “When?” | |||
This reference is clearly to the destruction of the temple, which did, as a matter of fact, take place some 40 years later while many of Jesus’ contemporaries must have been still alive. Therefore, all interpretations that this is talking about the end-time must be laid to rest. Matthew 24:34 refers to the same time-scale as Matt. 16:28 (which was also concerned with the fulfillment of Daniel 7:13–14): “some of those standing here will certainly not taste death before …” (see also Matt. 10:23, with the same Daniel reference: “you will not go through all the towns of Israel before …”). We can therefore also conclude that all of the portion of Matthew 24 preceding verse 34 also relates to Jesus contemporaries. | |||
Turning to Mark, the most natural interpretation of “this generation” is the present generation, that is, the generation of Jesus and his contemporaries. This is the meaning of the phrase elsewhere in Mark (see Mark 8:12, 38 and Mark 9:19). This interpretation makes good sense if “all these things” corresponds to “these things” of Mark 13:29 (also in Mark 13:4), and both have as their reference point the events surrounding the destruction of Jerusalem (see Mark 13:2, 4, 14–23) rather than the return of the Son of Man. | |||
A biblical generation was about forty years, which was not coincidentally the length of time between Jesus’ prediction and the destruction of Jerusalem. Those who claim that “these things” refers to the whole discourse (13:5–27), including the coming of the Son of Man and the end of the age (13:24–27), must conclude: | |||
#that Jesus was mistaken, | |||
#that the Son of Man’s return coincided with the destruction of Jerusalem, or | |||
#that “generation” here carries a different meaning. | |||
Various proposals have been made, including the church, the Jewish race, humanity as a whole, or the last generation before the end. None of these is convincing. | |||
Jesus is not speaking of his ultimate return. He is referring to the time between his resurrection and the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D. | |||
=Quotes of William Branham= | =Quotes of William Branham= | ||