Soon and Very Soon We Are Going to See the King of Kings

Let us review prophetic passages that seem to teach that Christ's second coming would have been during the first century A.D.  These are especially confusing for us reading them 2000-3000 years after they were written.  

Verses that can be confusing:

     Matthew 10:23 - "You (disciples) will not have gone over the cities of Israel till the Son of Man be come. "   Matthew 16:28 - "There are some standing here which shall not taste death till the Son of Man comes into His kingdom."

Clarity:

     1.  Jesus taught that unbelievers would not be able to grasp some of the things He said.  Read Matthew 13:13-15.   In fact, I Corinthians 2:14 teaches us that unsaved people will be unable to learn many eternal, spiritual truths from Scripture.  "The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he understand them for they are spiritually discerned."  

           Atheist Bertrand Russell, author of "Why I am Not a Christian," said that he could not trust Christ because He predicted He would return during the lives of some of His apostles.  He did not return then, so He cannot be trusted.  Russell is one example of how the unsaved cannot grasp biblical translation and interpretation difficulties.  

     2.  Jesus taught using similar language as the OT prophets.  

           a.  The prophets, as well as Jesus, used wording to impress upon their immediate audience to repent and be ready.  For example, Joel preached around 800 B.C. that the day of the Lord is at hand.  So did Jesus.

           b.  Prophecy included predictions about close, impending visitations of the wrath of God, the soon revelation of God's power and glory, and the deliverance of a generation or group of God's people.

           c.  The "days of the Lord" throughout history were predicted, so they are evidence from true prophets & eye-witnesses to give us calm assurance about the final "day of the Lord."  

      3.  Soon and very soon is from our eternal God's perspective.  In a prophetic passage by Peter we read, "with the Lord, one day is like a 1000 years, and a 1000 years is like one day."

What is more important?  Getting our end times events in the proper order? or getting ready, and getting others ready, to meet Jesus Christ?