If Jesus is Coming Back Soon, What's Taking So Long? | Doug Batchelor FYTube

I was raised as a Christian in a Communist country, and I always believed in the Second Advent of Jesus. AND I STILL BELIEVE. Thirty five years ago, I met the same problem with the scriptures in Matthew 16:27-28; 24:34 etc. I reject preterist explanations, I agree with you that the Greek ”geneá” in Mt 24:34 means (contextually) ”generation”, despite its other dictionary denotations (race, kind, clan, etc.).

Fortunately, or providentially, I should say, when I found this truth, I was already vaccinated through a serious knowledge of two Biblical studies:

1. The Biblical apocalyptic prophecies (Daniel and Revelation);

2. The Biblical classical (non-apocalyptic) prophecies.

The main difference between the two kinds is that the apocalyptic prophecies were given in an obscure, coded language, to hide for the time being some future realities (e. g. the approximate time lapse, the political actors), while the non-apocalyptic prophecies were given in a plain language, or sometimes poetical, but easy to understand. The reason of this plain language is that God wanted that prophecy to be understood, because it challenged the faith and action of the believers. Such kind of prophecies are CONDITIONAL, namely they are not simple predictions of the future, but inspired scenarios of God’s best plan for some point in time. For example, most prophecies

Prophecies were not given to satisfy one’s curiosity, but to have the best orientation in history and lifetime, to foster hope and faith. We would not be blessed to know our own future exactly as it will be, like a transcendent reading of the future, beyond the time, or as a predestination. If it were finally bright, we would be satisfied with such a knowledge and will become lazy and indulging in sin. Or, if it were a disastrous final, we would not be encouraged at all to know it beforehand. You see, this problem of revealing the future was made in such a way, to satisfy various spiritual needs, and finally help us cope with the unexpected and the doubt.

I was prepared to face this challenge by reading an excellent Bible study on the prophecies about Israel in OT in 1980+. It was a magnific demonstration, based on the CONDITIONAL prophetic principle of Jeremiah (18):

_____

1 The LORD said to Jeremiah: 2 "Go down at once to the potter's house. I will speak to you further there." 3 So I went down to the potter's house and found him working at his wheel. 4 Now and then6 there would be something wrong with the pot he was molding from the clay8 with his hands. So HE WOULD REWORK THE CLAY into another kind of pot as he saw fit. 5 Then the LORD said to me, 6 "I, the LORD, say: 'O nation of Israel, can I not deal with you as this potter deals with the clay? In my hands, you, O nation of Israel, are just like the clay in this potter's hand.'

7 There are times, Jeremiah, when I threaten to uproot, tear down, and destroy a nation or kingdom. 8 BUT IF THAT NATION I threatened STOPS SOING WRONG, I will CANCEL the destruction I intended to do to it. 9 And there are times when I promise to build up and establish a nation or kingdom. 10 BUT IF THAT NATION DOES WHAT DISPLEASE ME AND DOES NOT OBEY ME, then I will CANCEL the good I promised to do to it. 11 So now, tell the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem this: The LORD says, 'I am preparing to bring disaster on you! I am making plans to punish you. So, every one of you, STOP THE EVIL THINGS you have been doing. Correct the way you have been living and do what is right.'_____

We know that some pessimistic prophecies, like that of Jonah failed (fortunately), and many optimistic prophecies failed, like those of Isaiah (19:20-25; 65), Jeremiah (31:38-40), Ezekiel (37:16-28), Zechariah (8:20-23; 14:16:21), and they are wrongly and vainly applied to the millennial kingdom of Revelation (20), since contextually they are about the ancient Israel and God’s plans for the repatriated Jews after the Babylonian exile. Every promise of God, and every threatening is CONDITIONAL.

Jeremiah (28:8-10) said: 8. From earliest times, the prophets who preceded you and me invariably prophesied war, disaster, and plagues against many countries and great kingdoms. 9 So if a prophet prophesied peace and prosperity, it was only known that the LORD truly sent him when what he prophesied came true."

This scriptures show us that, of the conditional prophecies, the pessimistic ones would often come true, because of the usual unbelief and disobedience of the human part.

We can rightly believe Jesus’s conditional promises. His prophetic gift was rigorously proved, by His death and resurrection, which He prophesied more than 3 years before the event; and by the fall of Jerusalem, which He prophesied nearly 40 years before it happen. These prophecies in Mark 13, Matthew 24 and Luke 21 cannot have been written after the event (70 AD), since everyone in the world knew the tragedy of Jerusalem. You cannot fool people with such fabrications, in roughly the same generation.

Christ’s Second Advent is as certain as His sacrificial death and resurrection. Jesus’ promise was His serious intention. But He knew that the time factor was conditional, because He said (Matt 24:14): ”And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole inhabited earth as a testimony to all the nations, AND THEN THE END WILL COME.” This was the task of the Church, not to know the time (Acts 1:6-11). Also, after delivering His famous Olivet Prophecy (Matthew 24 etc), Jesus told some parables regarding the time of His second coming. Please read them again, and note the emphasis on NOT KNOWING THE TIME worldly living, bad surprise regarding time, as in the generation of Noah and the generation of Lot (verse 36-44), engagement in the good work of the Kingdom and the element of DELAY (Matt 24:45 — 25:46). Then we have the wise revelation of Peter (2 Peter 3), where he was shown what would happen with the second Christian generation, after 70 AD, when gradually the faith and hope of many Christians vanished, after the first generation died (”since the fathers fell asleep” 2Pe 3:4). Peter says that the delay of Christ’s coming is not about a tarrying / lingering God, but about a merciful God. Then he adds that Christians should HASTEN HIS COMING, by properly preparing for it, as the Lord taught them.

Now the Christian era is indeed too aged, but no Christian waited for the end more than one generation, until he/she died. (I don’t want to say that this is the proper interpretation of Matt 24:34, nevertheless is a practical comfort, if you are a believer!). When Christ will come and the dead will be resurrected, it will seem to them that their time of waiting the Lord’s coming in life was short, and that the death sleep (of the soul-body – see Ps 115:17-18) lasted a moment. Until that moment, I encourage you to turn again your eyes upon Jesus and study His Word, and you will receive new wisdom and new energies, not only to survive as a Christian, but also to help others in the same condition. Maybe God allowed you this ”scandalous” experience, just for this reason.

God is paradoxical, and so is His Word, but He is always true, righteous and merciful. Do not despair in searching and living His truth. God bless you!

21 Comments

@PastorBatchelor says:

10 May 2024 at 18:12

Thank you to everyone who watched and commented on this video! We welcome your participation. If you would like to learn more exciting things from the Bible, you can follow the link below to access FREE Bible study opportunities online. https://www.amazingbiblestudies.com/home/afgd/M1571

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@florinlaiu says:

10 May 2024 at 18:12

I was raised as a Christian in a Communist country, and I always believed in the Second Advent of Jesus. AND I STILL BELIEVE. Thirty five years ago, I met the same problem with the scriptures in Matthew 16:27-28; 24:34 etc. I reject preterist explanations, I agree with you that the Greek ”geneá” in Mt 24:34 means (contextually) ”generation”, despite its other dictionary denotations (race, kind, clan, etc.).

Fortunately, or providentially, I should say, when I found this truth, I was already vaccinated through a serious knowledge of two Biblical studies:

1. The Biblical apocalyptic prophecies (Daniel and Revelation);

2. The Biblical classical (non-apocalyptic) prophecies.

The main difference between the two kinds is that the apocalyptic prophecies were given in an obscure, coded language, to hide for the time being some future realities (e. g. the approximate time lapse, the political actors), while the non-apocalyptic prophecies were given in a plain language, or sometimes poetical, but easy to understand. The reason of this plain language is that God wanted that prophecy to be understood, because it challenged the faith and action of the believers. Such kind of prophecies are CONDITIONAL, namely they are not simple predictions of the future, but inspired scenarios of God’s best plan for some point in time. For example, most prophecies

Prophecies were not given to satisfy one’s curiosity, but to have the best orientation in history and lifetime, to foster hope and faith. We would not be blessed to know our own future exactly as it will be, like a transcendent reading of the future, beyond the time, or as a predestination. If it were finally bright, we would be satisfied with such a knowledge and will become lazy and indulging in sin. Or, if it were a disastrous final, we would not be encouraged at all to know it beforehand. You see, this problem of revealing the future was made in such a way, to satisfy various spiritual needs, and finally help us cope with the unexpected and the doubt.

I was prepared to face this challenge by reading an excellent Bible study on the prophecies about Israel in OT in 1980+. It was a magnific demonstration, based on the CONDITIONAL prophetic principle of Jeremiah (18):

_____

1 The LORD said to Jeremiah: 2 "Go down at once to the potter's house. I will speak to you further there." 3 So I went down to the potter's house and found him working at his wheel. 4 Now and then6 there would be something wrong with the pot he was molding from the clay8 with his hands. So HE WOULD REWORK THE CLAY into another kind of pot as he saw fit. 5 Then the LORD said to me, 6 "I, the LORD, say: 'O nation of Israel, can I not deal with you as this potter deals with the clay? In my hands, you, O nation of Israel, are just like the clay in this potter's hand.'

7 There are times, Jeremiah, when I threaten to uproot, tear down, and destroy a nation or kingdom. 8 BUT IF THAT NATION I threatened STOPS SOING WRONG, I will CANCEL the destruction I intended to do to it. 9 And there are times when I promise to build up and establish a nation or kingdom. 10 BUT IF THAT NATION DOES WHAT DISPLEASE ME AND DOES NOT OBEY ME, then I will CANCEL the good I promised to do to it. 11 So now, tell the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem this: The LORD says, 'I am preparing to bring disaster on you! I am making plans to punish you. So, every one of you, STOP THE EVIL THINGS you have been doing. Correct the way you have been living and do what is right.'_____

We know that some pessimistic prophecies, like that of Jonah failed (fortunately), and many optimistic prophecies failed, like those of Isaiah (19:20-25; 65), Jeremiah (31:38-40), Ezekiel (37:16-28), Zechariah (8:20-23; 14:16:21), and they are wrongly and vainly applied to the millennial kingdom of Revelation (20), since contextually they are about the ancient Israel and God’s plans for the repatriated Jews after the Babylonian exile. Every promise of God, and every threatening is CONDITIONAL.

Jeremiah (28:8-10) said: 8. From earliest times, the prophets who preceded you and me invariably prophesied war, disaster, and plagues against many countries and great kingdoms. 9 So if a prophet prophesied peace and prosperity, it was only known that the LORD truly sent him when what he prophesied came true."

This scriptures show us that, of the conditional prophecies, the pessimistic ones would often come true, because of the usual unbelief and disobedience of the human part.

We can rightly believe Jesus’s conditional promises. His prophetic gift was rigorously proved, by His death and resurrection, which He prophesied more than 3 years before the event; and by the fall of Jerusalem, which He prophesied nearly 40 years before it happen. These prophecies in Mark 13, Matthew 24 and Luke 21 cannot have been written after the event (70 AD), since everyone in the world knew the tragedy of Jerusalem. You cannot fool people with such fabrications, in roughly the same generation.

Christ’s Second Advent is as certain as His sacrificial death and resurrection. Jesus’ promise was His serious intention. But He knew that the time factor was conditional, because He said (Matt 24:14): ”And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole inhabited earth as a testimony to all the nations, AND THEN THE END WILL COME.” This was the task of the Church, not to know the time (Acts 1:6-11). Also, after delivering His famous Olivet Prophecy (Matthew 24 etc), Jesus told some parables regarding the time of His second coming. Please read them again, and note the emphasis on NOT KNOWING THE TIME worldly living, bad surprise regarding time, as in the generation of Noah and the generation of Lot (verse 36-44), engagement in the good work of the Kingdom and the element of DELAY (Matt 24:45 — 25:46). Then we have the wise revelation of Peter (2 Peter 3), where he was shown what would happen with the second Christian generation, after 70 AD, when gradually the faith and hope of many Christians vanished, after the first generation died (”since the fathers fell asleep” 2Pe 3:4). Peter says that the delay of Christ’s coming is not about a tarrying / lingering God, but about a merciful God. Then he adds that Christians should HASTEN HIS COMING, by properly preparing for it, as the Lord taught them.

Now the Christian era is indeed too aged, but no Christian waited for the end more than one generation, until he/she died. (I don’t want to say that this is the proper interpretation of Matt 24:34, nevertheless is a practical comfort, if you are a believer!). When Christ will come and the dead will be resurrected, it will seem to them that their time of waiting the Lord’s coming in life was short, and that the death sleep (of the soul-body – see Ps 115:17-18) lasted a moment. Until that moment, I encourage you to turn again your eyes upon Jesus and study His Word, and you will receive new wisdom and new energies, not only to survive as a Christian, but also to help others in the same condition. Maybe God allowed you this ”scandalous” experience, just for this reason.

God is paradoxical, and so is His Word, but He is always true, righteous and merciful. Do not despair in searching and living His truth. God bless you!

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@pamelasutettejones5943 says:

10 May 2024 at 18:12

Parents,please when your children become fussy,take them to the Nursery. It's destracting. Thank you for understanding. Shalom

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@randolphprimejr2974 says:

10 May 2024 at 18:12

2000 years went pretty fast. Why not go before antediluvian, when we expected Jesus to come to earth the first time. We got a lot of work to-do, our personal relationship with Jesus if we want to be saved. 7000 plus years before- Busy -''BC.''

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@user-cv2of4ve4u says:

10 May 2024 at 18:12

Is the Dajjal Jesus or Muhammad????

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If Jesus is Coming Back Soon, What’s Taking So Long? | Doug Batchelor FYTube

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