![]() It is almost certain that this is what the Lord meant, for he used the word "generation" in this very sense in the previous chapter, Matthew 23:33-36. "This people will not pass away till all these things take place." The Indestructible People And the second explanation involves a very forced and unnatural meaning for the word "this." The only other alternative is that the word "generation" means the Jewish people. Of course, if he meant the disciples' generation then his words have long ago been proven false. Each of these meanings has been suggested as a possible explanation of his words.īut the truth is, he meant neither of these. ![]() Did he refer to the generation to which he was speaking, i.e., the disciples and their contemporaries? Or did he perhaps mean the generation which would be alive when the events he predicted will begin to be fulfilled? If that is what he meant, he would have been saying that when these events begin they would be completed before the generation would pass. Many have wondered exactly what he meant by these words. "Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away till all these things take place." Then the Lord offers a second guarantee, contained in an often misunderstood statement in verse 34: When the world reaches the stage he describes, and the possibility of the coming of the Lawless One looms on the horizon of current affairs, then "he is near, at the very gates." We are now nearing the end of two thousand years of history and each man can judge for himself whether or not the world is approaching these events. History will confirm his predictions as it unfolds. The trend of world events is the guarantee that he has been telling the truth about the future. What the Lord means is that as history unfolds and it becomes apparent that the world is heading toward the conditions he describes, then men can be very sure that his coming is near. Luke tells us that he said this is not only about the fig tree, but also of "all the trees" (Luke 21:29). Of course that is perfectly true, but that is not what he is saying here. Some have misread this to mean that the fig tree is a symbol for the nation Israel and that the Lord means to say that when Israel shows signs of life as a nation that then the end is near. Everyone knows that when the trees begin to put forth their leaves it is an infallible indication that summer is near. ![]() It is another pattern from nature which illustrates the point he wishes to make. So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates." "From the fig tree learn its lesson as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that sumer is near. ![]() Even Jesus anticipates a certain degree of honest doubt, for at this point in his discourse (verse 32) he breaks off his description of the last days to give three powerful guarantees that all he has said will actually come to pass. In fact it would be rather strange if you haven't. If you have, you are not the first one to do so. Of the Lord Jesus, when he will show himself to be King of kings, and Lord of lords, and the Judge of the whole earth and which is sometimes styled the day of the Son of man, and the day of God, for Christ will appear then most gloriously, both in his divine and human nature the day of redemption, that is, of the body from the grave, and from corruption and mortality and the last day in which will be the resurrection of the dead, and the day of judgment, in which Christ will come to judge the quick and dead: and whichĪt an unawares, and the Lord himself in that day will so come, ( Revelation 3:3 ) ( 16:1 ) respect is had not to the character of the thief, nor to the end of his coming but to the manner of it, in the dark, indiscernibly, suddenly, and when not thought of and looked for and such will be the coming of Christ, it will be sudden, and unknown before hand, and when least thought of and expected: and since the Thessalonians knew this full well, it was needless for the apostle to write about the time and season of it which they were sensible of, could no more be known and fixed, than the coming of a thief into anyone of their houses.How can we be sure all this will happen? No doubt you have asked that more than once before now. With great exactness and accuracy, with great clearness and perspicuity, as a certain truth, which was made plain and evident to them, and about which there could be no question and which perfect knowledge they had, either from the words of Christ, ( Matthew 24:42-44 ), or from the ministration of the apostle and his fellow labourers, when among them:
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