I am involved in a study of Matthew 16:27-28, showing why our Lord had to return to establish his Kingdom during the first century AD, and not only so, but the resurrection of the dead, the judgment and the new heavens and new earth also had to have come at that time. In previous studies I’ve already approached this point of view by drawing on Isaiah chapters 40 and 62 and Daniel chapter 7. The fact is that Jesus came as “the Servant of the Jews for the sake of the truth in order that he would fulfill the promises God made to them through the fathers” (Romans 15:8 – paraphrased).
Notice what Jesus claimed in his Sermon on the Mount:
Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets:[1] I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. (Matthew 5:17-18; emphasis mine)
In other words, until everything God said in the Old Testament is fulfilled, the Old Covenant is still in effect. If the Old Covenant is still in effect, the Jews and everyone who submits to the God of the Bible, must keep the Law, but this is impossible without the Temple. Therefore, anyone who claims the God of the Bible to be his or her God is in rebellion against him, if he or she isn’t busy endeavoring to rebuild the Temple at Jerusalem!
Of course, such a thought is ludicrous in light of the New Testament, but, if I believe the Old Covenant has passed away, and I’m living in the New Covenant of grace, then it follows that all things in the Law and the Prophets **must** have been fulfilled, because Jesus claimed “not one jot, nor one tittle would pass from the Law,” until everything God promised came to pass.
I’ve already shown in previous studies drawing on Isaiah chapters 40 and 62 and Daniel 7 that Jesus’ coming to establish his Kingdom and to judge the just and the unjust was predicted in the Old Testament. Virtually, everyone of all shades of Christianity agrees that the Old Testament predicted the coming of the Lord in judgment and to establish his Kingdom. Yet, if this is so, and he didn’t come up to this point in time, then either the prophesies concerning his coming in both the Old and New Testaments have failed, or the Law of Moses is still in effect. The Old Covenant is still in force and the New Covenant hasn’t been fully established.
I don’t see any middle ground here. Do you? It must be one or the other. Either Christ did come in the past, or he is yet to return to us, as he promised. If he did come, then all things have been fulfilled, the New Covenant has been established and the Old Covenant has passed away.
On the other hand, if Christ has yet to come, then, either all the prophesies concerning Christ’s coming have failed, or Christ will return sometime in the future, but in the meantime, the Old Covenant would still be the covenant in force between mankind and God. This would mean that the New Covenant still remains to be fully established by Christ when he returns and judges mankind, but that simply isn’t plausible.
Therefore, Jesus must have already come in the glory of the father, and, in doing so, judged Jerusalem, as he said he would (Matthew 26:64), and established the saints in the Kingdom of God, while some of the people who listened to him were still alive (Matthew 16:27-28). That is, all these things would have been done within the timeframe of a single generation, namely, the one that rejected Jesus as the Messiah (cf. Matthew 24:34).
______________________________________
[1] A common manner in which the Jews referred to the entire Old Testament (Matthew 5:17; 7:12; 11:13; 22:40; Luke 16:16; John 1:45; Acts 13:15; 24:14; 28:23; Romans 3:21).
Smoodock's Blog 