To: Alan Markoff who wrote (27125 ) 9/23/1999 1:55:00 AM From: Jamey Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 39621
The Second Coming was prophesied to happen in occurance with the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD. The Olivet discourse definitely points to the conclusion that Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21 were all fulfilled by A.D. 70. First, when Jesus? disciples asked Him, ?What is the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age?? (Matt. 24:3), they must have had in mind the destruction of the temple; Jesus had just told them that the temple was going to be completely destroyed (Matthew 24:2). For the disciples, the destruction of the Holy Temple would have been viewed as nothing less than a massive upheaval or end of their entire religious/political world. So it?s not surprising they would connect the destruction of the temple with the final coming of the King and with the end of the age (cf. Isa. 66:6). Jesus said, ?Many false christs will rise up, and false prophets? (Matt. 24:24). The rising up of many impostors was a sign that the last days had arrived. The apostle John understood that this was being fulfilled in the first century A.D. when he said, ?...it is the last hour, and as you heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have risen up; by this you know that it is the last hour? (I John 2:18). John told his readers in this verse that they could know it was ?the last hour? (the last hour of Biblical Judaism) because ?many antichrists? had risen up. In other words, since Jesus said that many false christs and false prophets would appear in the last days, John and the other Christians knew the end was indeed near for them because many of the deceivers had already appeared. Jesus said, ?And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come? (Matt. 24:14). The good news had been preached to all the world by the time the book of Romans and the book of Colossians were written in the first century. Romans 10:18, ?Their voice (the voice of those preaching the good news) has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world?. Col. 1:23, ?This...gospel...has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven?. And shortly after the good news was preached in the whole world in the first century, the end of the Old Testament world came in fiery judgment in A.D. 70, at the destruction of Christ?s enemies. Finally, in Matthew 24, Jesus said, ?This generation will in no wise pass away until all these things have happened.? ?This generation? means the same thing here as it does in most other places in the NT. It speaks of those living at that time. So all of Matthew 24 was indeed fulfilled within the forty year period between the cross and the destruction of Jerusalem, including the parousia and the end of the age." Santiago