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Pastimes : Ask God -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Alan Markoff who wrote (24338)	2/15/1999 10:20:00 AM
From: Dr. Stoxx	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 39621

Dear Nancy/Alan, Sorry it has taken so long to get back to your question (busy putting lectures together for today). You asked about which verses I was referring to when I mentioned the mistaken assumption on the part of the early church that Jesus would return immanently, accompanied by signs of the end of the world. This belief is found throughout the NT, including the letters of Paul where his belief in the nearing end of the age, for example, influenced his teaching on marriage (not a good idea if the world is ending soon, see 1 Cor. 7). In the Gospels the primary reference is Matt. 24. In vs. 34, Jesus is recorded as saying, "Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away till all these things take place". Here, "all these things" refer to the long list given in vss. 29-31, and includes wars, famines, earthquakes, solar and lunar eclipses, and the falling of stars. One might also include, Rev. 22:20, where Jesus says, "Surely I am coming soon". Clearly the bible is mistaken on this account. Some want to impose awkward interpretations on these sayings. "Soon" might mean "in a few thousand years!", or the list of disasters might have referred to the destruction of Israel in AD 70. But the first example is embarrassing, while the second is confronted with the problem that, presumably, Jesus has yet to return. The vast majority of biblical scholars hold that not only the early church, but Jesus himself, believed that while the hour and day could not be determined, the end of the world would occur within the lifetimes of the Jesus' contemporaries. One example of this is the myth of the rising dead from their tombs, imported into Matthew's crucifixion narrative, indicating the ushering in of the end of the age. Once it was determined that jesus was not coming back any time soon, the formula was reinvented to introduce, not the physical re-appearing, but the spiritual reappearing of Jesus in the sacramental celebration of bread and wine. I could go on...but I've got to get to class. Respectfully, TC.