Finding Jesus in the Bible…So We Can Follow Him in Life
Bible Reading Plans
- Plan One: New Testament Only
- Plan Two: New Testament + Psalms
- Plan Three: New Testament + History
- Plan Four: The Entire Bible – Year 1 of 3, Year 2 of 3, Year 3 of 3
Don’t know which plan? Go to A Christ-Centered Bible Reading Plan: Quick Start.
Extras
Verse of the Day, Audio Capsule, and Video Minute
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(Today’s Reading)
The Biblical Case for the Second Coming as Accomplished Fact
(Book Installment 17)
Part Two – The Timing of the Second Coming
Chapter 2 – What the Gospels Say
The Master’s Timetable
Once again we state the obvious: Jesus said that not too long after the temple was destroyed, while tribulation was prevalent and false teachers abounding, He would come. He made no mention that He might come in some succeeding generation but went out of His way to assure them it would be in that generation. Jesus raises the hope that, if they would endure, they themselves would see His coming. Which do you think had more risk of failing: their endurance or His promise? Of course, their endurance. Since, however, they did endure (save Judas, and the ones He chose to give their lives in martyrdom, including Peter and Paul), how much more did He come! We will really get mixed up if we start thinking we are the sure thing and God is the maybe. If He said (and He did) “this generation will not pass away until all these things take place,” (and His coming was the most essential of all the “things”) then we may rest assured that by the time that generation passed away all these things had taken place. And not only had they all occurred, but in the exact sequence He outlined. How can we say we believe Him and see it any other way?
As you read through the rest of the New Testament, you can see that the apostles follow their Master’s timetable exactly in what they say to people. For example, in his second letter to Timothy, when Paul is writing about the last days, he says to Timothy that “difficult times will come” (2 Timothy 3:1). Now when a guy who’s encountered the level of tribulation that Paul has (Have there been many other guys who’ve encountered that much tribulation?) tells you that difficult times are coming, you really have to call it “great tribulation.” And isn’t that just what Jesus called it (Matthew 24:21)?
In this same passage (2 Timothy 3), Paul speaks of the false teachers in these difficult times as being like “Jannes and Jambres” who “opposed Moses” (2 Timothy 3:8). This would bring to Timothy’s mind the magicians of Pharaoh who reproduced some of the signs and wonders of Moses and Aaron – a definite allusion to Jesus’ prophecy that the many false Christs and false prophets at the end would even in some cases perform great signs and wonders, seeming to imply divine authority was with them.
This is only one example of how the apostles always speak and write according to the timetable Jesus gives. Though they may use different words and phrases, they always stick to the same ideas and timing.
We will not only see that the apostles teach the same timetable, but that they, because they are writing through the period from the Lord’s resurrection to His return, can confirm to us that certain portions of the Lord’s prophecy were fulfilled before their eyes. For example, they tell of the various forms of personal tribulation they endured (mostly in an indirect way, for they were wanting to call attention to the Lord and not to themselves) and even of the false teachers near the end (e.g. 3 John 1:9, which we’ll examine below). Therefore, we will see that the apostles not only accepted and taught the Master’s timetable, but also verify for us portions of its fulfillment.
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