Quote:
Originally Posted by Kim G  Matt. 24:32-34: “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place." | The Greek word translated "generation" here can also mean those descended from a common ancestor and was used in that sense in the language of the day. I think taking it this way makes a great deal of sense. For Jesus has just foretold the destruction of Jerusalem in such terms as to raise the possiblity that it would involve the total destruction of the Jewish people. To forestall this incorrect conclusion, Christ lets his disciples know that this generation i.e. the physical descendants of Abraham would not be wiped out. Quote:
Originally Posted by Kim G Matthew 16:27-28: "For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. 28 Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” | Keep in mind that we know that Christ was reigning as early as the time Paul wrote 1 Cor. 15:25 where Christ "must reign until he has put all enemies under his feet." So if Christ was reigning as early as this date he must have begun to reign earlier. Personally I would date his reign from the resurrection since Paul writes in Rom. 1:4 that Christ "...was declared to be the Son of God with power by his resurrection from the dead." If this is correct, then some of those standing there that day saw Christ "coming in his kingdom" in his post-resurrection appearances.
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In Christ's love and service
Mr. Tim Cunningham, Dip. CS (Regent College)
Member, First Baptist Church
Vancouver, BC
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"The Reformation was a time when men went blind, staggering drunk because they had discovered, in the dusty basement of late medievalism, a whole cellar of 1500-year-old, 200 proof grace—a bottle after bottle of pure distillate of Scripture, one sip of which would convince anyone that God saves us single-handedly. The word of the gospel—after all these centuries of trying to lift yourself into heaven by worrying about the perfection of your own bootstraps—suddenly turned out to be a flat announcement that the saved were home-free before they started. Grace was to be drunk neat: no water, no ice, and certainly no ginger ale." – Robert Farrar Capon
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