In our last session we considered how the first advent of Jesus brought changes to the world so great that only those of His future second advent will be greater! Now let's get to carefully examining His answer to the disciples question: "When will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?"
The first thing He does is warn them. DO NOT BE DECEIVED! Let us take to heart that warning as we strive for a sound understanding of the Olivet Discourse and all teaching about end times! Next the Son of Man tells them what to expect in their immediate future (following Matthew's account, that is through 24:35), and finally He comes to the unknown future, Matthew 24:36ff. Which segues us to a story.
Yours truly had a work associate at a part time job he held while in seminary. The man's name was King Barbee. Yep, his given first name was King. Mr. Barbee had a favorite expression: Nothin' but a bird. He would say something like, "You can take a chicken and bake it. You can fry it. You can fricassee it. But after all is said and done, you ain't got nothin' but a bird!"
King's meaning was that the simple truth remains however you try to dismiss it, dress it up, or change it. Likewise, one can try to do some fancy interpretive gymanastics, but the simple assertion Jesus makes is inescapable: namely that the circumstances and events of which He speaks in that first portion of His Olivet discourse concern THIS generation, i.e. His generation, the generation alive on Earth in the middle of the first century. See Mathew 24: 34, Mark 13:30, and Luke 21:32.
Here are just a few of many passages where the same original language word is used that Jesus uses in those verses, and with the same meaning, i.e. THIS generation: Matthew 11:16,17; Matthew 12:41,42; Mark 9:19; Luke 11:29; Luke 50,51. For those of you who work with James Strong's concordance numbers, the word is GENEA (transliteration), # G1074. Look it up and have fun trying to make the say something else, which sad to say is exactly what some Bible "commentators" do.
So let's ask this question: If Jesus insisted that ALL THESE THINGS which He mentions up to Matthew 24:34, solemnly affirming it in vs. 35, were to come upon His contemporaries, are we going to believe Jesus or not? It's that simple…THIS generation…nothin' but a bird! You can try to spiritualize it, you can claim all kinds of fanciful interpretations, you can try to squeeze it into your theological scheme, but you still ain't got nothin' but the bird of THIS generation!
Now let's consider some of the specifics that the sinless, infallible Son of God said would come upon that long gone generation which have caused some to stumble, saying "THAT already happened! How can that be! Impossible!" Here's a list, we'll go back and look at each in detail:
Is the assertion here that these things are in the past? YES! On what authority? That of Jesus! The Lord Jesus Christ said these things would come upon THIS generation — His generation, i.e. the generation alive at the time of His earthly ministry. Nothin' but a bird! We'll look at these eight things in turn in our next session. Go to A Survey of Eschatology, Part Five