Many folks today believe that the establishment of the Kingdom of God was postponed by God, because the Jews rejected Jesus as their Messiah? Is that true? Do men’s decisions have that much power with God that he must change his plans to accommodate the plans of men? In other words, is our will stronger than God’s will? Paul asks that question in 1Corinthians 10:22, but his question is asked facetiously, when he asks, “Are we stronger than he (i.e. the Lord)?” By the way, Paul answered his own question earlier in the same letter when he said: “The weakness of God is stronger than men” (1Corinthians 1:26). So, my question still stands: “Do men’s decisions have that much power with God that he must change his plans to accommodate the plans of men?”
For some time, now, I have been discussing the implications of Jesus’ words in Matthew 16:27-28. There he claimed he would come in the glory of the Father, to judge men and to establish his Kingdom, and many who were listening to him would live to see that day! That’s a very challenging statement, indeed, at least for futurists who place the Lords Second Coming yet in our future, some 2000 years removed from Jesus’ day. I have been showing how Jesus was simply saying that the time of the Kingdom was near, and the prophesies of the Old Testament were being fulfilled by him in his day. After all, this is what Paul said in Romans 15:8 when he tells us that Jesus actually made himself the Servant of the Jews for the sake of the truth in order to fulfill all that God had promised the Jews through the fathers (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob).
Let’s take a look at another prophecy given us by Daniel, the one we know as The Seventy Weeks Prophecy:
Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. (Daniel 9:24-27)
In other words 70 weeks of years (490 years) were determined upon the Jews. God promised Daniel that the Jews, as a nation, had 490 years (10 jubilees) left before their covenant with him would come to an end. During that time they would rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple, but in the end, both the city and the Temple would be destroyed in another war. Now that’s the prophecy, but I don’t see a postponement. Do you? God gave the Jews 490 years, 10 jubilees, and even if one puts in a gap at the 69th week of years or the middle of the 70th week, one cannot get beyond 70 AD, because that is when the Romans came and destroyed both Jerusalem and the Temple, thus scattering the Jews throughout the world, and to this day the Temple hasn’t been rebuilt.
Jesus said he would come in the glory of the Father and judge men according to their works, and in doing so he would establish the Kingdom of God, and some who listened to him on that day would live to see that come to pass (Matthew 16:27-28). They did, in 70 AD.
This would be the simple or plain reading of the text, so what am I missing? Virtually, all Christians of every persuasion agree that when the 70 Weeks Prophecy is fulfilled, the Old Covenant would come to an end and the Kingdom of God would be established. Both John the Baptist and Jesus claimed that the judgment and the Kingdom was near (Matthew 3:11-12; 4:17). Were they false prophets? What Christian would agree to that? Let me ask the same question a different way. Do **we* make them false prophets, by projecting Jesus’ coming to judge his people and establish the Kingdom of God into our future? Certainly, many unbelievers today agree that Jesus and all the New Testament writers prophesied falsely, because they claimed the Second Coming would be in the first century AD. What is the difference between what these scoffers say, and what the futurists say today?
I agree with Jesus and John. The Kingdom and the Judgment was near in the first century AD, and Jesus did come in the glory of the Father to judge every man according to his works and established the Kingdom of God in that generation, before some of those who heard Jesus’ words on that fateful day (Matthew 16:27-28).
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