Matthew 24: 35 Commentary

1. PRETERISTS believe that verses 4-35
a. Are ALL about 70 AD
2. They see JUDGMENT language
a. Eschatological HYPERBOLE
b. And PROLEPTIC expression used throughout
3. FUTURISTS are somewhat divided
a. With MOST believing verses 4-35
b. Are DISTANT FUTURE
4. Jesus is saying His words are reliable
a. That you can take them to the bank
5. I will READILY admit I do NOT have
a. All the answers regarding ESCHATOLOGY
6. I am GUILTY also of the rebuke of Jesus on the Emmaus Road
a. Then Jesus said to them, “You foolish people! You find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the Scriptures. Wasn’t it clearly predicted that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering his glory?” (Luke 24:25-26 NLT)
7. It does NOT however give me an excuse
a. For NOT studying however
b. So I will continue to do such
8. But to sit in judgment and hold Jesus hostage
a. As a false or confused prophet
b. Because it may be unclear to US
c. Is the height of PRESUMPTIVE ARROGANCE
9. Our God is too small if we think
a. That Jesus who claimed to be God
b. Somehow “GOT IT WRONG”
10. The Jews by and large REJECTED Jesus
a. And STILL do today
11. Because He did not meet ALL
a. THEIR Messianic expectations
b. As THEY interpreted the scriptures
12. Many of them got the FIRST coming
a. Of Jesus WRONG
13. What makes us think we will get ALL the facts
a. Of whether Jesus is referring to 70 AD
b. Or the SECOND coming RIGHT
14. I once hear it said that the very FIRST word
a. Coming out of our mouths
b. Upon entering heaven
c. Will be a sheepish “oh.”
d. Meaning our dogmatic pronouncements
e. Upon secondary issues of doctrine
f. And no doubt prophetic interpretations
g. May well be shown for the foolishness
h. That they really were - but thank God for His mercy!

By Tractorman (wrote 3584 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 4/4/2012 14:09 pm

To All:

Read Revelations 21.

A new Earth and a new Heaven are created. Just as our Lord Jesus Christ has stated.

This is when the earth is purged by fire and is destroyed; then heaven blends in with earth and becomes “eternity on the new earth and new heaven.”

Flood on Earth= Baptism of Water
Jesus Blood spilled at Calvary= Sanctification of the Earth
Purged Earth by God’s Fire= Baptism of the holy Spirit

All must go through God’s order; That means ALL Creation.

By angel (wrote 400 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 12/3/2011 05:21 am

My question in post 35 was: does anybody think Jesus is telling us that heaven is not forever?

By Charles (wrote 1421 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 12/3/2011 04:07 am

BEING RELIGIOUS IS NOT BEING RIGHTEOUS, EVEN BELIEF ON GOD ALONE IS NOT RIGHT or the devil believe God and trembles but keep on disobeying the word of God. Faith comes by hearing and hearing the Word of God that will not pass away, being a doer of the Word and not a forgetful hearer that is being righteous….and they that do the Word of God together with the Word of God will not pass away!

By TIUCHE (wrote 3265 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 12/3/2011 02:44 am

One other point about this verse here. Taken literally, Jesus is saying that heaven is not forever.

Jesus was probably just using a little hyperbole and didn’t mean it literally… perhaps! I wonder what Bible literalists have to say about it.

By Charles (wrote 1421 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 11/20/2011 15:53 pm

THE WORD THAT WILL NOT PASS AWAY -THE WORD THAT WILL JUDGE YOU IN THE DAY OF JUDGEMENT…

John 12:48 He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.

Psalm 119:89 Your word, O LORD, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens.

By TIUCHE (wrote 3265 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 11/20/2011 15:28 pm

Robert L. It is indeed a hard pill to swallow when people instead of pointing people to Jesus, instead of lifting up Jesus Christ-the Word Incarnate- who live the Word of God full of grace & truth- we point people to people….sinful people making sinful people there authority even over the sinless jesus Christ…is not of the Spirit of God but the spirit of the wisdom of men.

Believers had a safer guide when they look to Jesus as shpherd who paid for their sins, rather than men who claim as authorities over Him!

Jesus warned in Matthew 24: 4-5: Take heed that no man deceive you.
For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.

You say Jesus is Christ, I say Jesus is Christ, but we might be false prophets….so believers are safer with Jesus Christ since they can pray to Him and Jesus answers prayers! He is the Good Shepherd and his sheep knows His voice but the voice of other people they will not listen to!

By TIUCHE (wrote 3265 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 11/13/2011 17:55 pm

Ref:#29

Charles there is much merit in your expressed views here and I concur with them.

To those who may find what you say a hard pill to swallow I can only gently point them in the direction of Paul Tillich who says:

” Being religious means asking passionately the question of the meaning of our existence and being willing to receive answers even if the answers hurt.”

Peace!

By Robert Louis (wrote 52 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 11/13/2011 16:37 pm

Ref:#28

One main point of the classical traditional view is that it provides us with an infallible source of teaching about God, for Jesus knows exactly what God is: his knowledge is God’s own Knowledge, so he can teach with supreme authority about the nature and purpose of God. Once one allows error into Jesus’ teachings, this point is lost. Bear in mind too that from about the second century Catholic Christians had begun to believe that Jesus was, not a distinct human being but God himself, the divine Word, who assumed a human nature.

I have a major difficulty with the very idea of a God actually walking the earth. I suppose it sounds like science fiction, or like the myths of Greece, Rome or India, when gods did walk with men; but which were pretty clearly fictional. This was a world of myth and fairy-tale, where men could be born of rocks or virgins, could walk through walls and on water, could ascend and descend from their Olympian heaven at will, putting on the disguise of common humanity as required. It was hardly the world of scientific law and controlled observation, in which magicians are always on hand to expose the tricks of the deceivers.

But let me reiterate, one cannot really hold that the recorded teachings of Jesus in the Gospels are infallible. To obtain such inerrancy, one must play down many difficulties. In a sense, this can be justified; for there are bound to be difficult passages in any profound text which it might be wise to put to one side until greater maturity gives one some insight into what they might mean. On the other hand, the inerrancy interpretation “skews” the Gospels to give them a meaning which conceals the obvious one and imposes one which is rather alien to their true sense.

By this I mean that one can try to see the Gospels as profound and consistent testimonies to the acts of God in Jesus, and thus as a sound basis for building a body of coherent doctrines, as the church had done. In doing so, however, many passages have to be interpreted in a strained sense, many differences in narrative smoothed over, and the whole historical context of their origin almost wholly ignored in favour of an a prior doctrine of what that origin must have been. There is a sort of dishonesty at work, a subtle dishonesty of refusing to see the natural force of evidence, and instead giving it a profound spiritual meaning - which it must have, as the Word of God. But such a forced interpretation can only survive the test of repeated and careful reading for a limited time; and it is very difficult for any honest and diligent reader of the Gospels in the original Greek text to hold on to such a view for very long.

Fact is Matthew was wrong about the imminent return of Jesus and perhaps Jesus was wrong about it also. Remember this was a key belief for early Christians. You then begin to see that the whole framework of New Testament teaching is an apocalyptic worldview which is as foreign to us today as the graves opening and many saints being resurrected and walking around downtown. The context is the war of the Son of Man and Satan, a war of angels and demons and spiritual powers in heavens, which will culminate in a Great Tribulation and Final Battle. Then will come the reign of the Son of Man in glory, when, within one generation, the kingdom of God will dawn in power, the judgement of living and dead will occur, and Satan and his followers will be cast into hell-fire for ever. Then the apostles and the tribes of Israel will rule over earth; so the small gathered community of those who are totally obedient to Jesus will be saved by Jesus from the wrath to come, which will fall on earth like a terrible purifying fire.

Once this is openly and clearly said, the New Testament no longer has to be seen as a deeply mysterious and cryptic set of spiritual teachings. Its obvious context is the messianic expectation of the end of all things and a terrible judgement coming very soon “like a thief in the night”. It makes good clear sense out of the New Testament material. Trouble is, it entails that all these beliefs are both factually mistaken (the end DID NOT COME within a generation) and often morally dubious (the saving of one small group of people from eternal wrath is an oddly parsimonious view of the universal love of God). That is why it is not often loudly said even by those Christians who believe it.

In love and light.

By Robert Louis (wrote 52 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 11/13/2011 16:14 pm