Rella ~ I am a woman
Well-Known Member
Yes, but education from either side to new viers is valuable.... And every now and again a newer point will be found and should be shared.Christ's bodily return in AD 70 was to gather and bring all the bodily-resurrected saints back with Him to heaven. Everyone who had died up until then who was a child of God was included in that rapture, from Creation forward until AD 70. Some of them had already been resurrected, and had been waiting on earth for Christ's return (such as the 144,000 First-fruits Matthew 27:52-53 resurrected saints, Lazarus, Dorcas, the widow's son, Enoch, those raised to life by Christ and the disciples, etc.) All of these were considered part of the "Israel of God", which Paul wrote about.
You and I have gone over this point before.
The witnesses of Christ's bodily return to the Mount of Olives - the "every eye" of those who pierced Him - were present in the besieged city of Jerusalem in AD 70. Most died in the city after that, or else they were taken prisoner by the Romans and sent into slavery or to Roman arenas to be killed later. Some were sent to the triumph procession in Rome. Prisoners and dead men aren't really known for their ability to create documents recording what they saw. When you insist that you have to have a written record after the fact before you can believe it, this shows a distrust of Christ's words telling us what He was going to do before that first-century generation had passed away.
But there you have it. One has to believe that the first century generation was the one that
was being talked about and not the generation of God's children... or more pecisely
Matt 24:34 " Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled"
Greek (Interlinear) NOTICE the use of the word genea.
34 amēn legō hymin hoti ou mē parelthē hē genea hautē heōs an panta
34 ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι οὐ μὴ παρέλθῃ ἡ γενεὰ αὕτη ἕως ἂν πάντα
tauta genētai
ταῦτα γένηται .
Peshitta
34 אמין אמר אנא לכון דלא תעבר שרבתא הדא עדמא דהלין כלהין נהוין܂
34 αμην λεγω υμιν ου μη παρελθη η γενεα αυτη εως αν παντα ταυτα γενηται
Strong's
Strong's Greek: 1074. γενεά (genea) -
From: ( Bolding etc are mine) Generation is a wrong translation choice for Greek genea
2. The meaning of genea As I shall discuss the meaning of genea in the following, I am well aware that I go against a tradition, which is especially strong in the English-speaking world. Who is this generation? Briefly stated, the tradition more or less equates the word genea with English ‘generation’. This may work in a few places, especially when the word occurs in the plural form, but in the phrase “this genea” it is misleading to use “generation.” It does not seem to agree with the meaning of the Greek phrase or the Hebrew behind it, and it does not make good sense in most places where the word occurs in the New Testament. Rather, genea means ‘a class of people bound together through a common origin or with a common bond.’ In certain contexts genea does have the very restricted sense of the English “generation,” but in most contexts it does not have this narrow sense. The English word “generation” has undergone a semantic shift so that the meaning today is very much narrowed down as compared to the Greek genea, the Latin generatio and “generation” in the English language as spoken when the King James translation was first made. Even the Vulgate translation used four different Latin words to translate genea, one of which is generatio. But the word generatio is used to translate other Greek words as well, for example, Matt 1:1 genesis (GNB: family record) and Luke 22:18 genēma (fruit). In Danish we have the word “generation” as a modern adopted word. It has the same area of meaning as the corresponding English word, but it is never used to translate genea in the New Testament. In English there is evidence that the area of meaning of “generation” has narrowed down considerably since the time of the KJV translation. The evidence is that the word gennēma ‘brood’ in Matt 3:7 is translated by “generation” in KJV as well as the word genos ‘race, people’ in 1 Pet 2:9. The Oxford Universal Dictionary gives the following, now obsolete (latest attested use 1727) sense of “generation”: “class, kind or set of persons.”
IOW: for me... it is all encompassing those of us who would or should be encompassed.
And as I said before...
Strong's ....
Strong's Greek: 1074. γενεά (genea) -- race, family, generation
Original Word: γενεά, ᾶς, ἡ Part of Speech: Noun, Feminine Transliteration: genea Phonetic Spelling: (ghen-eh-ah') Definition: race, family, generation Usage: a generation; if repeated twice or with another time word, practically indicates infinity of time.And if repeated with another time word... = infinity of time. = Mathew 24:34
Which is why I keep looking.It also presumes that such a record was never made, when archaeology is an ongoing process that may yet discover such documentation.
If those words were clear, I could understand. But to me they are not.It also presumes that the resurrected bodies being gathered together with Christ in the skies were supposed to be like some slow-motion video which was visible for a great length of time before they all had disappeared from view. If the bodies of the righteous dead were to be changed to the incorruptible state "in the twinkling of an eye", just how long do you think it would take for a resurrected person to be raptured to heaven? After all, even today, a believer who dies has his soul instantly present with the Lord in heaven: "Absent from the body, and present with the Lord". Why not the same rapid transit for the resurrected bodies of the saints back in AD 70?
To deny the clear words of Christ and the scriptures regarding His imminent return in that first-century generation isn't wise.
The effect on my life of believing Christ's clear statements of His bodily return in AD 70 on that 1,335th day is an absolute reassurance that what God and Christ promise, they most certainly bring to fulfillment. I can have utter confidence in a God that has kept His word to the letter, and in the time promised.
All those disasters being finished which were imminent for that first-century generation gives me a rest from my former fearful expectation that these were going to be taking place in the future for us. It shows me that I no longer need worry about the present existence of Satan or the demonic realm in this world. Demon possession no longer exists since AD 70, since God promised that He would cause all the unclean spirits to "pass out of the land", and that He would crush Satan under the feet of the Roman believers in their lifetime. We no longer wrestle with the spiritual wickedness in high places, as those in the first century were doing during the Devil's "short time" before his destruction.
Humanity has enough to contend with concerning the wicked nature of fallen mankind, and also whatever evil lurks within our own hearts. The Great Commission task is still ours, but it comes with God's promise that Christ's "stone" kingdom will continue to grow into a great mountain which will fill the whole world. Our part as believers is to share in spreading that progress of Christ's kingdom, until the next third bodily-resurrection event in the distant future.