Smoodock's Blog

I am presently involved in a study series concerning “The Challenge of Christ!” Basically, that is Jesus saying ‘Don’t believe me when I say something, unless I back it up by doing it’ (John 10:37-38). In other words, unless Jesus actually does what he says he’ll do, we are not to believe him. This statement has sweeping consequences to the Christian faith. Don’t try to make excuses for Jesus. Let his words stand or fall by themselves. If he is God, he’ll do what he says. After all, isn’t God almighty, and doesn’t that mean he is able to do what he claims he can and will do? Well, I believe so, and I’ve accepted ‘The Challenge of Christ!’ The problem is, as I said, this has affected my faith in a manner that shakes it right down to its foundation. What do I mean? Well, Jesus did say he would return in the first century AD. Didn’t he? Has he?

Jesus claimed the Father had given him work to do and that work, among other things, involved judgment (John 5:19:22-23). On the day he was crucified he told the high priest: “Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven” (Matthew 26:64). Coming in the clouds, involved judgment, for this is how the Father had come in the past when he judged a nation for their wickedness (Isaiah 19:1), but no one actually saw the Father coming on the clouds to judge a nation. Rather, he came in the person of the armies of another nation (cp. Jeremiah 4:13), and in this manner judgment was executed.

So, Jesus told the high priest on the day of the crucifixion, that that high priest would see him coming in the clouds. Less than two full days earlier, Jesus sat on Mt. Olives and told his disciples that he would come in the clouds with great power and glory and the tribes of the earth (i.e. the land of the Jews) would mourn (Matthew 24:30). Furthermore, he told his disciples that he would come with his angels, and they would gather his elect from one end of heaven to the other, wherever they might be found (Matthew 24:31). Finally, Jesus claimed that these things would be done in that very generation in which they lived (Matthew 24:34). That perverse generation (Acts 2:40) that judged and crucified the Messiah and was responsible for persecuting and killing those whom Jesus sent to them in an effort to get them to repent (Matthew 23:32-36; cp. 1Thessalonians 2:15).

So, did Jesus return and judge that crooked, perverse generation? If he didn’t, we have no reason to believe him for anything else he said he would do (John 5:37-38). The fact remains that in 70 AD the Jewish nation was destroyed by the Roman armies. They burned Jerusalem and the Temple. Nevertheless, no one saw Jesus do it. Yet, it was done, just as he said it would be done. He came in the clouds (Matthew 34:30), just as the Father had done in the past to judge a nation (Isaiah 19:1). Moreover, just as the Father wasn’t actually seen when he judged a nation, but came in the person of the armies of another nation, which he chose as the rod of his anger (Jeremiah 4:13; cp. Isaiah 10:5), so Jesus came in judgment of the Jewish nation in 70 AD, destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple in the person of the Roman armies. Thus, ending the Old Covenant, and establishing the New:

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 (Daniel 9:26; emphasis mine)

That is, the armies of the prince (Titus, the Roman general and son of the Emperor) will come and destroy the city (Jerusalem) and the sanctuary (the Temple)! This is how it was done, and this is how the Lord predicted it would occur (Luke 21:20). This is what history records as happening: Rome destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple there. Jesus told the high priest he would see him coming in the clouds (Matthew 26:64). Luke tells us that would be done with armies, just as Jeremiah claimed the Father had come (Jeremiah 4:13; cp. Isaiah 10:5) to judge other nations. Can we believe Jesus’ words now? Did he do the works that he said he would do?

Yes, he did exactly what he said he would do. The problem is many Christians don’t believe he returned. They still look for him to come in our future. But, Jesus never said he would do that. Did he? Why do so many of us believe Jesus, the Messiah and Judge of the world, **must** do the bidding of Harold Camping, or Hal Lindsey or any of the other false prophets who have arisen to predict the coming of the Lord after 70 AD?