Checkpoint wrote: ↑Wed Dec 29, 2021 3:55 pm
[
Replying to FaithWillDo in post #39]
Dear Checkpoint,
I wanted to reply to your comments about Matthew 24 and specifically about "this generation will not pass".
All of Matthew chapter 24 is teaching on the pathway to salvation. It is an End-time chapter but the "end-time" is not what is commonly taught. The "end-time" is what happens to our old vessel/carnal nature upon the second coming of Christ (Latter Rain of the Spirit). It is the end-time of our old vessel.
Hello, FaithWillDo.
Jesus was specific about what and who he was referring to as "this generation".
He spoke plainly and clearly. It was nothing like what you wrote about.
However, I agree with what you said about spiritual language as a biblical prnciple.
Yes, Jesus was very clear about the generation - it was the generation of those same people He was speaking with
face to face. Everything Jesus said was teaching about the pathway to salvation which is completed at our moment of conversion. That conversion event first happened to the Apostles on the Day of Pentecost in the upper room and was probably no more than a year or two after Jesus spoke in Mat 24.
One thing you might consider is in the Book of Revelation. It too is teaching on the pathway of salvation.
The book clearly says the seals are already open and the time is at hand. But that was nearly 2000 years ago! Can't you see the conflict here with the common teaching on Revelation?
Rev 1:3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for THE TIME IS AT HAND.
Rev 22:7 Behold, I COME QUICKLY: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.
Rev 22:10 And he saith unto me, SEAL NOT the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for THE TIME IS AT HAND.
If the time for the book of Revelation is still future, how can anyone, especially those who lived and died over the past 2000 years, ever hope to KEEP THE SAYINGS OF THE PROPHECY?
Was Christ mistaken when He said "I come quickly"? Two thousand years is not quickly.
In Mat 3:2, it says "And saying, Repent ye: for the
kingdom of heaven is at hand". Jesus is the Kingdom of Heaven and His time was at hand (happening now). The same understanding should also be applied to the statement "the time is at hand" in Rev 1:3 and 22:10. "At hand" means it is happening now.
The truth is the prophecies of Revelation were fulfilled in the 1st century A.D. and have continued to be fulfilled over and over again since that time. For Christ's Elect of this age, Christ has already come or is presently coming or will come in the future.
Rev 1:4 John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne...
Rev 1:8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.
Christ's second coming to His Elect will continue until the last chosen person is saved and this age comes to an end.
The book of Revelation is not teaching about outward coming world events. The book is teaching about spiritual events which happen
within us. Those events take us to salvation.
Unless a person "keeps those sayings", salvation will pass them by.
Joe
