 | Dr. John Click, has been the Pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church for 27 years now he is the pastor emeritus. He’s a graduate of Baylor University with a BA and Southwestern Seminary with a BD. He received his DMin at Midwestern Seminary. He has served in numerous positions in the Southern Baptist Convention, including: President of the Kansas/Nebraska Convention, Executive Committee of SBC, North American Mission Board, International Mission Board, and Houston Baptist University Board. He has traveled to preach in Europe, Central and South America and the Far East. Dr. Click is the founder and first President of Harvest Communications, which is a TV production company specializing in producing teaching materials for Para- Church organizations. You may contact him for comments or questions by e-mail at: Jcclick99@aol.com. |
Religion
2008-03-01 09:38:00
Destruction of the world or the temple?
Question: Luke 21: 5-19 talks about the destruction of the temple and the persecution that will take place. How do we know that our Lord wasn’t talking about what happened in 70 A. D. instead of the end of the world? (all answer the same question).
Answer: Several of Jesus’ predictions, like many of those in the Old Testament before Him, join short-term and long-term prophecies. (cf. Daniel 7 & 8, for example). But in this case, the questioner inadvertently, asked two questions. Jesus had just told of the destruction of the temple which would happen within the lifetime of some of the hearers. The questioner asked: (1) “When will these things happen?” And then (2) “What will be the sign that they are about to take place?” When Matthew records this conversation, he says that the second question was, “what will be the sign OF YOUR COMING and of the end of the age?” The answers Jesus gives in Luke and Matthew are almost exactly the same, which makes us wonder if the Luke question is correctly recorded. Jesus answers the second question first: He tells about a much later time (some still future to us). We recognize much of this as having taken...or now taking...place. These are vss. 8-19. Then her first question regarding the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem are detailed in vss. 20-24.
It ends with the times following the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jews scattered “to all nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” Many believe that this was fulfilled in 1948 when the nation of Israel was formed by the United Nations and the Jews given the right to return. Vss. 25-28 then moves on ahead to a time still future to us. In vs 29 He gives a parable for the use of the listening crowd and recorded as for Jesus’ followers for all times. What about vs.32? “I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.”
If generation is one lifetime (less than 75 years), it was not true. But the word generation also was used to mean a nationality, especially if it was the offspring of a single person. In this case, it predicts the remarkable existence of the Jewish nation.
