In this series of studies, I’ve been sharing the Challenge of Christ, as found in John 10:37-38. There, Jesus based his identity as the Jewish Messiah (John 10:24-25) upon whether or not he did the works the Father had sent him to do. If he didn’t do those works, then reject him; don’t believe a word he says. On the other hand, if he did do the works the Father had sent him to do, then believe the works. If one believes Jesus did do the works, then it would follow that we would come to believe he was in the Father and the Father was in him, and his identity as the Messiah would be a foregone conclusion. The only question remaining is: do we believe Jesus did the works he said he would do?
In John 5:22 Jesus claimed the Father had committed all judgment to his Messiah, i.e. to Jesus. Now, previously, under the Old Covenant, the Father had used a nation ‘over there’ to make war upon and thereby judge a nation ‘over here.’ In other words, although the texts says the Lord came in the clouds to judge a nation (Isaiah 19:1), he didn’t visibly come out of heaven riding on a cloud to judge that nation. He used other nations to do his bidding. Therefore, if Jesus claimed he was going to come in the glory of the Father (Matthew 16:27) and judge every man according to his works, he would do that in the same manner his Father had done those things in the past. He wouldn’t be coming visibly, and, although he says he would come in the clouds (Matthew 24:30; 26:64) it wasn’t speaking literally. He was saying the judgment would be from heaven and in the glory of the Father.
The prophets of old had claimed that the Lord would come in the last days (Isaiah 2:2) in the Day of the Lord (Isaiah 2:12) and shake the earth mightily, wherein men would run and hide in the caves and rocks of the mountains (Isaiah 2:19, 21), and Jesus applied this event to his generation (Luke 23:29-31). In other words, the last days and the Day of the Lord, wherein folks would flee to the mountains for safety, was applied by Jesus, himself, to the event of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 AD. The event would fall upon the children of the very women Jesus spoke with on his way to be crucified. The language is clear. Jesus applied Isaiah 2 to his day.
Moreover, Paul also used similar language for the judgment of the persecutors of the Thessalonians (2Thessalonians 1:9), saying they would be punished with an everlasting destruction (literally AGE DESTRUCTION) from the presence (prosopon – G4383) of the Lord. In the Septuagint the same language is used at Isaiah 2:19 & 21 to say the Jews would flee to the caves and rocks of mountains from the presence (prosopon – G4383) of the Lord. In other words, the Old Covenant age would end or be destroyed (cp. Hebrews 8:13) with them, i.e. the Jews being cast from the presence of the Lord (cp. Genesis 3:22-24). This was a covenantal judgment, not a literal destruction of creation (shaking the earth mightily – Isaiah 2:19, 21; heavens burning with fire – 2Peter 3:10, 12).
With the above in mind, consider the fact that the Apocalypse shows at the opening of the 6th seal, the earth quaked, the sun became black, the moon was like blood and the stars fell the heaven rolled up like a scroll and every mountain and island moved out of their places (Revelation 6:12-14; i.e. the destruction of creation). Then the inhabitants of the earth (i.e. the land of the Jews in the first century AD) would try to hide themselves in caves and rocks in the mountains (Revelation 6:15-16). The language is very similar to 2Peter chapter 2 and Isaiah chapter 2, which Jesus very clearly and unambiguously applied to his generation of the 1st century AD.
The only question is do we believe the works of Jesus in coming in the glory of the Father with his angels (Matthew 16:27) on the clouds of heaven (Matthew 24:30), to reward every man according to his works, in the first century AD (Matthew 16:28; 24:34)? Jesus applied these things to that generation in the first century (Luke 23:29-31), which, if believed, is proof positive that he is the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One of God (John 5:22; 10:24-25, 37-38).
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