Originally posted by Leveller
Jesus clearly says in Matthew:
"I assure you there are some among those standing here who will never taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his Monarchy. I assure you
that thsi generation will not go by before all this happens"
He says almost the exact same thing again in Luke.
Now call me a sceptic but I'm pretty sure that the "generation" Jesus is talking about "tasted death" 2000 years ago.
Here's maybe something to think about:
John 21
21 Peter seeing him saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do?
22 Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me.
23 Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die: yet Jesus said not unto him, He shall not die; but, If I will
that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?
Note that this is probably John writing this about himself. Remember that Jesus said "some standing here" will not taste death.
Maybe he was referring to John, maybe even others.
"Generation" is used in different ways all throughout the scriptures:
Psalms 14:5 There were they in great fear: for God is in the
generation of the righteous.
Psalms 24:6 This is the
generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob.
Isaiah 53:8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his
generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living:
for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
Jeremiah 7:29 Cut off thine hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on high places; for the LORD hath rejected and forsaken the
generation of his wrath.
Matthew 12:34 O
generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.
Matthew 16:14 A wicked and adulterous
generation seeketh after a sign...
Acts 8:33 In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his
generation?
Anway, there are tons uses of "generation" in the Bible. I just meant to offer the point that generation might mean more of a type of people (how
they live, how righteous there are, what beliefs the subscribe to) rather than just a thirty year period or some biological grouping.
But this is consist with how Jesus taught a lot of things. Remember when he was at the temple and said that he could destroy and rebuild the temple in
three days:
John 2:19 Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
Nobody understood what he meant. They thought he was referring to the actual temple, but of course he was was referring to his body:
v20 Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?
v21 But he spake of the temple of his body.
Not even the disciples understood it until after he was resurrected:
v22 When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them; and they believed the scripture, and the word
which Jesus had said.
And later a usage of temple in the same respect:
1 Cor. 3:17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
The Jews remebered what Jesus said about the temple and brought the accusation against at the trial and taunted him with it when he was on the
cross.
My point is to show that some seemingly contradictory statements should not be easily judged so. I find a lot of consistency throughout the Bible, but
it usually takes some thinking and some looking into. If one scripture seems to contradict some other scripture, you can usually find in yet another
place an instance where the message is presented in different way which clears up the seeming contradiction. For me it takes some time.
. The world will end in 2006, according to this message, but there's no need to start worrying until it happens.
