JehovahsWitness wrote:
Russell and all Jehovah's witnesses believe Jesus did indeed return but invisibly
Here's what the Bible says about Christ's Second Coming:
Matthew 24:27-31 – 27 “For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. 28 “Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather. 29 But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give it’s light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 “And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son Of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. 31 “And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.
Matthew 26:64 – 64 “You have said so,� Jesus replied. “But I say to all of you: From now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.“
Acts 1:9-11 – 9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. 10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 “Men of Galilee,� they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.“
Revelation 1:7 – 7 “Look, he is coming with the clouds,� and “every eye will see him, even those who pierced him�; and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.� So shall it be! Amen.
So how can anybody say Jesus has returned invisibly? These verses state that he will be seen.
Let's face it. The prophecy about Christ returning in 1914 didn't happen so Jehovah's Witnesses had to come up with some kind of explanation or admit they were wrong. And the Bible says that we will know a false prophet by the simple fact that his prophecies don't materialize (See Deut. 18:20-22). So they came up with the "invisible" theory. But it flies in the face of what the Bible says about Christ's return.
Elijah John wrote:
For debate, in light of the quoted passage from Matthew, was Jesus the first person to mistakenly predict his return?
Jesus wasn't wrong. The answer lies in one's interpretation of the word "generation". Theologians suggest three possibilities:
1. Some people think that "this generation" refers to the nation of Israel. They say this on the basis that the Greek word (γενεα), translated as "generation", can also mean "nation". Therefore, Jesus is saying that the Jewish people will not pass away until all of these end time events take place.
I believe this is unlikely because the word is rarely translated as that so why assume that's what it means here?
2. Some people think there is a double fulfillment to this prophecy. They think it was partially fulfilled when Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 A.D. and that the remainder has yet to be fulfilled.
It's true that many prophecies in the Bible have double fulfillments, including the one found Isaiah 61:1,2 which speaks of the acceptable year of the Lord (fulfilled with his first advent) and the day of vengeance of our God (will be fulfilled with his second coming).
See here for more:
https://biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/grac ... 3-2_13.pdf
3. "This generation" refers to the end-time generation, that is, the generation living at the end of the age when the prophecies in the Book of Revelation are fulfilled.
This seems entirely plausible to me.
We have yet to see the fulfillment of this prophecy, but it will indeed come -- perhaps in my lifetime, perhaps not. But it will happen. All of the prophecies regarding Christ's first coming were fulfilled. Therefore, there is no reason to believe that all of the ones regarding his second coming won't be fulfilled.
See here:
http://www.accordingtothescriptures.org ... ecies.html
And here:
https://bible.org/seriespage/66-second- ... ke-2125-36
