Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Did Jesus say, "This Generation" or "That Generation"?


Getting back to the subject of the book, "Is Jesus Coming Soon?" by Gary DeMar, he asserts what many in the church assume in Matthew 24 1-34 about "End Times", especially Dispensationalists. On page 20 it begins, "Chapt 24 begins with, 'Jesus came out from the temple and was going away when His disciples came up to point out the temple building to Him' (24:1). So then, the 'house' that would be left 'desolate' was the first-century temple that had been rebuilt under the direction of Herod the Great."
  • Page 21 continues, "Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation (23:36). Jesus and His disciples were discussing questions related to the time and signs of Jerusalem's destruction since that was the topic of discussion."
Furthermore, page 22 reads, 
  • "Truly I say to you, all these things will com upon this generation." (23:36)
  • "Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place (24:34)
What things? The things Jesus was speaking of about the false prophets, wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes in various places and the temple being left "desolate". All this was sandwiched between the two time texts listed above. Like, as Gary puts it, "eschatological bookends".

Lastly, on page 23, Mr. DeMar asserts, "Dispensationalists do not believe that the phrase 'this generation' refers to the generation to whom Jesus was speaking but rather to some future generation. There are a number of problems with this position."

I will list those in future posts. Stay tuned!