Jesus was coming soon
Readers of the New Testament discover about 40 days
after his resurrection Jesus disappeared into the atmosphere, promising to
return in just the same way someday.
That sounds great. I am all for
that! But when will it happen? More importantly, when did the authors of the New Testament say it would happen?
In the Gospel of Matthew Jesus is quoted saying the current
generation of people would not pass away before the end would come (Matt. 24:34). In The Revelation, John quotes Jesus saying
he is coming “soon” (Rev. 3:11, 22:7, 22:12, 22:20). Peter writes, “The end of all things is near”
(1 Peter 4:7). John writes “this is the
last hour” (1 John 2:18). So the clear
understanding of the writers of the New Testament is not only that Jesus would
return, but he would return soon.
It has been about 2000 years since those words were written. It seems clear that Jesus was either
misquoted, misunderstood the timing, or meant something spiritual rather than
literal in his talk of his return. It also seems clear the authors of the New Testament were wrong about the 2nd coming of
Jesus being imminent in their day and age.
Serious readers of the New Testament need to acknowledge these facts and
reckon with them in any beliefs they hold about the Bible.
There are a few explanations often offered to explain these
difficulties:
- “With God a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like a day” (2 Peter 3:8-9). This may be true but it doesn’t change what Jesus is reported to have said, or what the Apostles wrote would happen soon.
- “Jesus didn’t mean ‘generation’ he meant ‘race’ and the Jewish race still exists.” Based on an alternate translation of the Greek word translated ‘generation’ in Matthew 24:34, this interpretation tortures the context of this verse. It simply doesn’t make sense in light of the surrounding context in Matthew 24. It seems the only reason to prefer the translation “race” over “generation” is to cover up what seems to be a glaring error by Jesus.
- “Jesus himself said no one knew the day or hour” (Matt. 24:36). Although that is true, Jesus is still quoted saying it would happen within the time frame of that generation - and soon. It seems He is saying no one knows when His second coming will happen within the bounds of the existing generation (twenty or forty years).
To me, rather than trying to explain away these
difficulties, it seems more honest and straightforward to solve this problem by
saying, “The authors of the New Testament expected Jesus to come back any day
and included this belief in what they wrote down. But they were wrong.”
Those who hold to the idea that the Bible is a record of the
unerring words of God, recorded by human authors led word for word by the
Spirit of God will find this idea difficult to accept, if not downright
heretical. Honestly, it’s taken me a
number of years to reconcile myself to what I’ve been clearly reading in the
New Testament for decades. But I’ve come
to the point that I’d rather accept the scripture for what it actually is than
pretend it is something different than it presents itself to be.
Explaining to others that the Bible is perfect and always
correct because it is God’s literal words is easy to do. Just read it and believe it. It’s simple. Figuring out what to do with the Bible if it actually
includes ideas that have proven to be inaccurate takes a lot of thought. Explaining this to others is even more
complicated. It is also risky, because
such ideas tend to lead to discussions where lines are drawn and accusations
made about things like heresy and orthodoxy.
But let me start by proposing an idea to start with when we try to
figure out what to do with troublesome aspects of scripture. It may sound controversial, or even
heretical, but it is based upon a careful reading of the words that have been
passed down the centuries to us. It
comes from a sincere heart, and from a desire to follow part of the most
important command according to Jesus: to love God with all my mind.
Here it is: The written words of scripture communicate
the best and current understanding of God, humanity, and the cosmos held by the
authors. This means that sometimes, at least in the idea
of when Jesus would return to earth, they were wrong. Those who turn to the Bible for knowledge of
God and how to live in right relationship to God need to reckon with this, not
just pretend it doesn’t exist or it doesn’t matter.
However it was that God worked with the human authors of
scripture to convey eternal truth, it is clear there was still a measure of
human reason, human thought, human decision making included in the
process.
There is obviously much more to say about this important
topic. (In fact books have been
written.*) As I close this entry let me
just remind everyone that Christianity is based upon faith in Jesus, not faith
in a perfect book. Although I believe the evidence makes it
impossible to believe the Bible is perfect in every way, I believe there is so
much the Bible offers to anyone seeking spiritual Truth.
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* Two books that I have found very helpful in my personal study on this issue are
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