Is Jesus Coming Soon?

Over this past weekend, I finally received my copy of "Is Jesus Coming Soon," by Gary DeMar (Americanvision.org). The book is fairly an easy read. Only about 63 pages, big type and a few church art history drawings and paintings scattered throughout the book. I was intrigued right from the start. I couldn't keep it down. I even took it to church with me on Sunday and read some of the introduction as church was starting. Anyway, at the beginning of the book, there is a great chapter entitled, "A 10 Minute Guide to Bible Prophecy". It's a basic intro to eschatology mostly on Matthew 24. This book is in total contrast to the soap-opera style "Left Behind" madness and sensationalism that unfortunately dominates end-times teaching these days. In the weeks to come, I will be posting quotes that I've highlighted throughout the book. Like the one below:

"Why doesn't soon mean soon when Jesus promised to return before that first-century generation passed away nearly 2000 years ago (Matt 24:34)? When the Bible uses words like 'near,' 'shortly,' 'quickly,' and 'at hand,' they refer to times and events that are proximate to that contemporary audience." (page 2)

Even the controversial philosopher, and atheist, Princeton professor Peter Singer, asserted in a recent debate* vs Dinesh D'souza (Is God Great?), said something to the fact that Jesus Christ seemed to have made false prophecies. That, according to Matt 24, He promised His own disciples that He was coming back soon..."And He never did".

Sounds like Professor Singer has taken the traditional dispensational interpretation of Matthew 24 that has saturated most evangelical churches instead of the actual Biblical view. D'souza could of corrected him on this issue, but he had to unfortunately stick with his apologetic approach of "I'm going to reason logically without the use of the Bible"; clearly biblical humanism, but that is a post for another day.

*April 25th, 2008, "Is God Great" debate vs Dinesh D'Souza at BIOLA University

Note: To my unbelieving readers, this is mainly an "in-house" debate, however you are free to comment. But you may not understand the hermeneutic of eschatology without having some in-depth study in it first.