False Anointed Ones at the End Time: Difference between revisions

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→‎Does Matthew 24:24 apply at the end-time?

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 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.
+:''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.</ref>
 “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.
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 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.
+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.<ref>R. T. France, The Gospel of Matthew, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publication Co., 2007), 930.</ref>
-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.
+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.<ref>Mark L. Strauss, Mark, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2014), 594.</ref>
 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: