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Jesus Makes the Timing Very Clear Yet We Keep Getting it Wrong

“And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” Matthew 24:30-1.

“Now, we have him,” the end-of-the-world pursuers say. How can he explain this portion. Clearly, Jesus returns physically at the end of time, according to this passage. But this entire passage is bookended by timing verses. The first, of course, is when Jesus’ disciples ask him when the temple will be destroyed, and He answers very clearly and explains the signs of an event we already have the historic record of its occurrence. Then he follows with a specific timing statement for those who didn’t have that history . . . yet. “Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” Matthew 24:34-5.

Before the generation to whom He was speaking passed, the events He spoke of were to occur. It doesn’t get any plainer. But do we accept the plain statements of Jesus? No. We have to complicate it and find a way around His words. We are so intent upon believing that He was referring to our time that we ignore the literal meaning of His plain statements. We make literal His symbolic statements, and we make symbolic His literal statements. We are stiff-necked!

Matthew 24:32-3 states: “Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.” That’s the passage we use to get around Jesus’ clear words. Obviously, the events He spoke of were a sign just as the leaves on a tree indicate the coming of spring and summer. It doesn’t mean the fig tree is Israel. But what would be so strange about Jesus using the fig tree to symbolize Israel, seeing that Jesus is talking about the end of Old Covenant Israel?

Take for example the following lunacy “NOW THE END BEGINS:”

“So Jesus was saying that when you see ISRAEL re-blooming, whenever that would take place, that that generation would be the one that would be on the earth and living when the Last Days would occur. So if Israel was destroyed in 70 AD, and it was, when did it “bloom” again? May 14, 1948 is the date that history records that fact occuring[sp]. The generation that witnessed that, the WWII generation, still have not, for all intents and purposes, passed off the scene. They are still alive and with us today, and we are the people that Jesus said would be alive on the earth when the Last Days would happen.

“That time is right now. Let it sink in for a moment, I will say it again.

“The time of the “last days” that Jesus refered [sp] to, is not “in the future” and it’s not “coming soon”. It is here right now. For the past 6 decades, all the major players have been taking the stage and playing the parts that God said they would.” http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/pages/the_fig_tree_prophecy.htm, accessed on 11 March 2014.

So, “NOW THE END BEGINS,” how long is a generation? 65 years or more? This was Hal Lindsey’s theory in the seventies, when only 30 years had gone by. Jesus indicated the blooming would mean the end was “near, even at the door.” Why do we keep having trouble with the meaning of the word “near?” You could repeat the message a million times, used by thousands of end-timers from Hal Lindsey to “NOW THE END BEGINS” trying to apply to our day Jesus’ clear message to His apostles’ generation that the end would come in their time.

Jesus didn’t make it complicated. Before the generation of the apostles was over, the end would come, preceded by the events He spoke about and which we continue to think haven’t happened yet. But what is this “sign of the Son of man in heaven?”