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Apologetics . Was Jesus Mistaken about an Early Second Coming?. Did Jesus Teach He would return soon?. Matthew 10:23 Matthew 16:28 Mark 8:38 Mark 14:61-62 2 Peter 3:4
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Apologetics Was Jesus Mistaken about an Early Second Coming?
Did Jesus Teach He would return soon? • Matthew 10:23 • Matthew 16:28 • Mark 8:38 • Mark 14:61-62 • 2 Peter 3:4 Skeptics claim that Jesus did teach his soon return, and that Christians like Peter scrambled to explain why it hadn’t yet occurred
Did Jesus Get it Wrong? • Peter isn’t making a hasty attempt to cover for Jesus’ error • There is a tension between imminence and delay in all apocalyptic literature • Why did Jesus speak of a great tribulation in Matthew 24:21? • The dual position: Jesus comes to God’s throne for enthronement, vindication and judgment in this generation, and comes to Earth at an unknown time in the future.
Did Jesus Get it Wrong? • NT writers distinguished between the Lord’s coming being near, and that delay is inevitable: 1 Corinthians 10:11 and 15:22-24 • NT writers corrected misperceptions that the end had already come: 2 Thessalonians 2:1-2, 1 Corinthians 15:12-20, 2 Peter 3:8-10 • Jesus was speaking of two distinct events in Matthew 24
Two distinct questions, two distinct events • Matthew 24:1-4 • When will “these things” be? • What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? • Jesus knew the answer to the first: 24:34 • Jesus did not know the answer to the second: 24:36 • Two different Greek words used • comes to God’s throne (erchomenon) • comes to Earth (parousia)