In the past 50 years or more there has been a battle for the Bible going on in academic circles. It may surprise us what liberals and skeptics use most to attack the authority of the Scriptures. It is without a doubt non-fulfillment of Biblical prophesy. For example, Bertrand Russell in his book Why I am not a Christian writes:
I am concerned with Christ as He appears in the gospels there one does find some things that do not seem very wise. For one thing, He certainly thought that His second coming would occur in clouds of glory before the death of all people who were living at the time. There are a great many texts to prove that. He believed that His coming would happen during the lifetime of many then living. That was the belief of his earlier followers, and it is the basis of a good deal of his moral teaching.
RC. Sproul made this comment on the matter in his book The Last Days According to Jesus,
The skeptism expressed by Russell on these matters is by no means limited to him, but are the axe ground by a host of higher-critical scholars of the Bible the chief ground for the radical criticism of modern biblical scholarship, which has resulted in a wholesale attack on the trustworthiness of Scripture is the thesis that the Gospels records of Jesus predictions contain glaring errors and gross inaccuracies .
Sproul talks in his book of his seminary days where liberal professors constantly used Biblical texts regarding the return of Christ to prove the bible was in error.
Even our beloved C.S. Lewis said:
Say what you like, we shall be told the apocalyptic beliefs of the first Christians have proved to be false. It is clear from the New Testament that they all expected the Second Coming in their own lifetime. And worse still, they had a reason, and one which you will find very embarrassing. Their Master told them so. He shared, and indeed created their delusion.
The same line of attack against Christianity is used by Jewish skeptics to speak against Christianity. They say that Jesus did not bring the Messianic kingdom in the time frame that the Old Testament prophets predicted. They claim in order to get around Jesus failure to bring the Kingdom of God to earth we have invented the doctrine of the second coming. In other words, Jesus would come back to take care of the things He did not fulfill the first time. However, the Jewish Bible gives no support for the Christian doctrine of a second coming. Consider the following quotes from Jewish writers.
The Jew refused to accept the excuse that the major prophecies concerning the Messiah will only be fulfilled in a "second coming." ( He expects the Messiah to complete his mission in his first attempt.) [The Real Messiah Reprinted from Jewish Youth, June 1973 page 15.]
Since Jesus did not fulfill the most important Messianic prophecies, they expected him to return to complete this task in a "second coming." At first, Christians expected that this (second coming) would come very shortly...in their lifetime. When their prayer was not an answered they began to hope that it would come a thousand years after Jesus death. This was the millennium or thousand years kingdom. Finally after a thousand years passed and Jesus still had not returned, (they postponed his second coming to an indefinite time). We therefore see that the (early Christians were forced to radically alter the Jewish concept of the Messiah in order to explain Jesus failure). This compounded with the pagan influence in the (early church, gave birth to a Messianic concept totally alien to Judaism. [Pinchas Stolper, ed. pages 32, 33}
You will discover that when ever any really strong question [such as why Jesus hasnt fulfilled all Messianic prophecies]..is asked [of the Christians], the (standard answer is that it refers to the second coming). It therefore becomes extremely important to ascertain the validity of this claim. The success of the Christian claim or its failure ( rest to a very large extent on the theory of the second coming).It is clearly an answer born of desperation. [Samuel Levin. You Take Jesus, I will Take God. Los Angeles 1980. Page 15
Muslims use a similar attack against Christianity. They throw scriptures like Matthew 24:29-34, Mark 13:23-30, Matthew 10:22-23, and Matt 16:27-28 in our faces saying that Jesus could not be divine.
The challenge to the futurist viewpoint is simple. How do you answer these charges? These questions are faced by seminary students, missionaries, and evangelists alike. Christians in this hour especially need an answer. What can you give us? The following post was made last Saturday at Christian Forums. It is an example of the kind of attack that is coming against the Bible.
Ozark
I am concerned with Christ as He appears in the gospels there one does find some things that do not seem very wise. For one thing, He certainly thought that His second coming would occur in clouds of glory before the death of all people who were living at the time. There are a great many texts to prove that. He believed that His coming would happen during the lifetime of many then living. That was the belief of his earlier followers, and it is the basis of a good deal of his moral teaching.
RC. Sproul made this comment on the matter in his book The Last Days According to Jesus,
The skeptism expressed by Russell on these matters is by no means limited to him, but are the axe ground by a host of higher-critical scholars of the Bible the chief ground for the radical criticism of modern biblical scholarship, which has resulted in a wholesale attack on the trustworthiness of Scripture is the thesis that the Gospels records of Jesus predictions contain glaring errors and gross inaccuracies .
Sproul talks in his book of his seminary days where liberal professors constantly used Biblical texts regarding the return of Christ to prove the bible was in error.
Even our beloved C.S. Lewis said:
Say what you like, we shall be told the apocalyptic beliefs of the first Christians have proved to be false. It is clear from the New Testament that they all expected the Second Coming in their own lifetime. And worse still, they had a reason, and one which you will find very embarrassing. Their Master told them so. He shared, and indeed created their delusion.
The same line of attack against Christianity is used by Jewish skeptics to speak against Christianity. They say that Jesus did not bring the Messianic kingdom in the time frame that the Old Testament prophets predicted. They claim in order to get around Jesus failure to bring the Kingdom of God to earth we have invented the doctrine of the second coming. In other words, Jesus would come back to take care of the things He did not fulfill the first time. However, the Jewish Bible gives no support for the Christian doctrine of a second coming. Consider the following quotes from Jewish writers.
The Jew refused to accept the excuse that the major prophecies concerning the Messiah will only be fulfilled in a "second coming." ( He expects the Messiah to complete his mission in his first attempt.) [The Real Messiah Reprinted from Jewish Youth, June 1973 page 15.]
Since Jesus did not fulfill the most important Messianic prophecies, they expected him to return to complete this task in a "second coming." At first, Christians expected that this (second coming) would come very shortly...in their lifetime. When their prayer was not an answered they began to hope that it would come a thousand years after Jesus death. This was the millennium or thousand years kingdom. Finally after a thousand years passed and Jesus still had not returned, (they postponed his second coming to an indefinite time). We therefore see that the (early Christians were forced to radically alter the Jewish concept of the Messiah in order to explain Jesus failure). This compounded with the pagan influence in the (early church, gave birth to a Messianic concept totally alien to Judaism. [Pinchas Stolper, ed. pages 32, 33}
You will discover that when ever any really strong question [such as why Jesus hasnt fulfilled all Messianic prophecies]..is asked [of the Christians], the (standard answer is that it refers to the second coming). It therefore becomes extremely important to ascertain the validity of this claim. The success of the Christian claim or its failure ( rest to a very large extent on the theory of the second coming).It is clearly an answer born of desperation. [Samuel Levin. You Take Jesus, I will Take God. Los Angeles 1980. Page 15
Muslims use a similar attack against Christianity. They throw scriptures like Matthew 24:29-34, Mark 13:23-30, Matthew 10:22-23, and Matt 16:27-28 in our faces saying that Jesus could not be divine.
The challenge to the futurist viewpoint is simple. How do you answer these charges? These questions are faced by seminary students, missionaries, and evangelists alike. Christians in this hour especially need an answer. What can you give us? The following post was made last Saturday at Christian Forums. It is an example of the kind of attack that is coming against the Bible.
Ozark