Smoodock's Blog

For about 1900 years much of the Church has believed Jesus would visibly and literally return to the earth on a literal cloud, at the sound of a literal trumpet, in a literal / physical body of a literal Jewish male to literal Jerusalem, from there he would sit on a literal throne, in a literal, rebuilt Temple and literally govern the nations. Nevertheless, this is a gross misunderstanding of Jesus’ words, as I’ve been demonstrating in this series of studies, developed in the context of Jesus’ words in John 10:37-38. There he made the astonishing statement: “Don’t believe me if I don’t do the works the Father gave me to do, but believe only if I do those works.” Imagine that! If the works that Jesus claimed he would do aren’t done, don’t believe him. This is the Challenge of Christ!

In other words, instead of looking for Jesus to return 2000 years after he promised to do so, if he hadn’t done it by this time, do not believe him! After all, he promised to return before the generation in which he lived died out (Matthew 16:27-28; cp. 24:30-34).

Peter wrote of false teachers, scoffers actually, who would arise in the last days (2Peter 2:1-2; 3:1-4) from among the Body of Christ and introduce destructive doctrines that denied the Lord’s coming. Not only were their doctrines popular among believers, but they were also powerful weapons in the hands of unbelievers who would use them to mock at the coming of Christ.

First of all, consider the fact that the scoffers were mocking at the return of Jesus, saying: “Where is the promise of his coming?” (2Peter 3:4)! If Peter actually taught Jesus coming wouldn’t occur for hundreds or thousands of years, such an act of criticism doesn’t make sense. The scoffers criticism makes sense only, if Peter taught Jesus coming was soon, sometime in the first century AD, and before Jesus’ generation passed away (cp. Matthew 16:27-28; cp. 24:30-34). Why would they mock at the fact Jesus hadn’t arrived, if the doctrine of his coming pointed to an event long after their lifetime?

Secondly, we need to consider the scoffers’ argument. What were they actually saying? Peter said they claimed: “since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation” (2Peter 3:4). Their argument pertained to something that occurred or continued to occur since the fathers fell asleep. The fathers are Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and all things continue unchanged from the beginning of creation. What “creation” is this? It couldn’t be speaking of Genesis 1:1, because the scoffers’ creation occurs after the fathers fell asleep.

Paul spoke of a new creation in Christ (2Corinthians 5:17), and he spoke of one in Adam and another in Moses (Romans 5:14). It seems the scoffers are saying all things continue unchanged from the creation of the people of God (Israel) under Moses, or since the establishment of the Old Covenant. So, Moses was the beginning of the old creation and Christ was the beginning of the new creation. However, the sacrifices continue in the Temple, the religious services occur daily and all things continue unchanged. So, “Where is the promise of his coming—i.e. to end all of that? This was their argument. Where’s this New Covenant? We can show you the Mosaic Covenant is alive and well and practiced daily in Jerusalem!

Paul also differentiated between the Old and New Covenants by saying the New Covenant in Christ was not of this creation, i.e. he entered the tabernacle in heaven, not the Temple in Jerusalem, and he took his own blood, not the blood of animals etc. (Hebrews 9:11-12).

So, where is the scoffers’ argument today? Jerusalem and the Temple were judged in 70 AD at the coming of Christ, just as he claimed it would occur, and just as Peter claimed it would occur. Everything has changed, and the old creation (i.e. the Mosaic Covenant) has passed away. That heaven and that earth (i.e. that Temple where heaven and earth met) has passed away, and the words of Christ continue to this day (Matthew 24:35).

Nevertheless, the unbelievers’ argument against Christ are embolden through the false teaching of the futurists who claim Jesus did not come in 70 AD, and we continue to look for him to come in our future. This is not what Jesus said he would do, and this is not what the writers of the New Covenant text said would occur. They claimed the scoffers would come in the last days (2Peter 3:3, and Jude claimed they had arrived (Jude 1:18), and believers in the first century AD needed to contend for the faith once delivered to them by the Apostles (Jude 1:3, 17).

If Jesus had come and was crucified in the last days (Hebrews 1:2) and the scoffers were to come in the last days (2Peter 3:3), the last days have come and gone. Jacob claimed the last days pertained to his descendants (Genesis 49:1), and Moses also referred to those last days as a time when Israel would reject the Lord who made his covenant with them (Deuteronomy 31:29). By what stretch of one’s imagination could the last days be in our day or even in our future? Where’s the evidence in the word of God that the last days refer to anything other than the end of the Old Covenant that God had made with Israel. The Old Covenant ended in 70 AD with the return of Christ and his destroying Jerusalem and the Temple through the Roman armies.