From: sperry@convex.csd.uwm.edu (Robert Joseph Sperry)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: End of the World Question
Date: 9 Sep 92 08:25:51 GMT

September 1994?????

Well, I'd appreciate it if one or many of you could explain the following
to me then:

Matthew 24:

{Jesus speaks about the signs before the end of the world}

33-36:

"So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the 
very gates.  Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away till
all these things take place.  Heaven and earth will pass away, but my
words will not pass away."


Mark 13:29

"So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near,
at the very gates.  Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass
away before all these things take place.  Heaven and earth will pass
away, but my words will not pass away."


Luke 21:31

"So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom
of God is near.  Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away till
all has taken place.  Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will
not pass away."



By my reading of the above, the world should've ended about 1900 years ago.
If I am reading these wrong, please let me know, but honestly I only see
two explanations for the above:

1) Jesus did say this and he was wrong.  One would assume that the Son
of God would not be wrong about such an important thing as this, so he 
must not be the Son of God.

2) These are misquotes/misinterpretations and thus Jesus never said these
things.  This is possible, but if it is the case, it is a major error 
(occurs in three separate gospels).  If there are major errors such as
this then what other major errors are there????

I'm very interested in others feelings on this matter.

Thanks!

[The general reading is that he's talking about the destruction of
Jerusalem.  If you look at the whole passage, you'll see that it
started with Jesus' prediction of the destruction of the Temple, so
there's pretty good reason to connect it with the destruction of 70
AD.  Luke 21:20 ff and other parts also make it clear he's talking
about the destruction of Jerusalem.  However he also talks about
things that sound like the end of the world.  So the question is
whether you think he identified the two, i.e. whether he predicted the
end of the world when the Temple was destroyed, which would have been
70.  Interpreters who are familiar with the apocalyptic style say that
he's using a style where an historical event is seen as a type of an
apocalyptic event.  I'm not competent to make that judgement.  But I
can tell you that several decades ago, there was a widespread view
that Jesus did expect the end soon.  That view seems to have become
less common.  (I should also say that the scholars who are doing this
analysis also believe that what Jesus originally said wasn't identical
to what's here, though it's not clear to me that the difference is
significant.)  It's hard for me to be sure why views have changed, but
a lot has been learned about apocalyptic writing recently, because of
the Dead Sea Scrolls but also other things.  If they are right, the
message of this section is that the destruction of Jerusalem is a sign
of the Kingdom's presence, and a type of the end that will come later.
So passages like Lk 21:28 "because your redemption is drawing near"
might not refer to the end, but to the presence of the Kingdom in
history.  --clh]