- Feb 24, 2002
- 15,534
- 4,827
- 57
- Country
- United States
- Faith
- Catholic
- Marital Status
- Married
- Politics
- US-Others
In Luke 21, Jesus warned His disciples: "Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am he,' and 'THE TIME IS NEAR.' DO NOT FOLLOW THEM. When you hear of wars and revolutions, do not be frightened. These things must happen first, but the end will not come right away."
Whoa! Jesus just told the apostles NOT to follow anyone that says "The time is near" until the signs of the end come - the famines, pestilences, earthquakes, persecutions by governments, etc. So, if Jesus was referring to some time period more than 1950 years down the road, then all of the disciples who claimed the time WAS near should NOT be followed, according to Christ.
That would make John, Peter, James, & Paul FALSE TEACHERS and FALSE PROPHETS according to today's Futurist Theology because they DID say the time was near in their epistles found in the New Testament!!!!
And He said, "See to it that you are not misled; for many will come in My name, saying, 'I am He,' and, 'THE TIME IS NEAR.' Do not go after them (NASB - Luke 21:8)
for many shall come in my name, saying -- I am [he], and THE TIME HATH COME NIGH; go not on then after them; (YLT - Luke 21:8)
I think it is very clear from the lips of Jesus here that the statement "the time hath come nigh" is a sign of false brothers as much as saying "I am he." And so we see how this makes false brothers out of the apostles (by futurist standards), for the apostles said exactly this:
PETER:
"But the end of all things IS AT HAND" (1 Peter 4:7)
PAUL:
"But I say this, my brothers, THE TIME IS SHORT; and from now it will be wise for those who have wives to be as if they had them not " (1 Cor 7:29)
"for yet A VERY VERY LITTLE [WHILE], He who is coming will come, and will not tarry" (Hebrews 10:37)
"Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone, AND THE DAY IS NEAR." (Rom 13:11-12)
JOHN
"Dear children, THE LAST HOUR IS COME; and as you once heard that there was to be an anti-Christ, so even now many anti-Christs have appeared. By this we know that THE LAST HOUR IS COME." (1 John 2:18)
"This is the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things WHICH MUST HAPPEN SOON ... Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things that are written in it, FOR THE TIME IS AT HAND." ( Revelation 1:1,3)
Futurists, of course, don't take any of the apostles' time statments LITERALLY. Yet Jesus said that those who would say 'THE TIME IS NEAR' were not to be followed by the apostles. The only ones who had the authority to determine the true time of the end of the age was the apostles -- and they all declared 'THE TIME IS NEAR.' Since Jesus takes the statement 'THE TIME IS NEAR' to be a LITERAL declaration that the endtime has come, then futurists cannot take allegorically all the apostles statements saying 'THE TIME IS NEAR'. This presents two dilemmas for futurists:
(1) If the apostles said 'THE TIME IS NEAR' when the time was not yet even close, then they were the very false ones specified by Luke 21:8
(2) If the apostles said 'THE TIME IS NEAR," and Jesus takes that statement to mean literally that the endtime has come, then futurists must ALSO take such statements to mean the time has indeed come and must believe the apostles on the issue of TIME or else declare them false prophets. The option of allegorizing time away is not permitted by Luke 21:8, for Jesus takes such statements to mean the end has indeed come.
If it should be said that Christ did not return in that generation as he and all the apostles unanimously taught, then they are false prophets and Christianity is based upon false teachers. If one cannot trust the "WHEN" passages spoken by Christ and the apostles (who were unanimous that Jesus would return in the Father's glory in their generation), then one cannot trust ANY passages on bible prophecy.
Fortunately, God keeps his word -- the destruction of the Nation, Jerusalem, and Temple is the subject of the Olivet Discourse. Jesus returned WHEN and HOW he said.
Jesus himself taught his return would be in the lifetimes of the apostles, and they in turn taught this to others as ESSENTIAL. Jesus even blesses the preterist understanding of the statement "THE TIME IS NEAR" (Luke 21:8), which Jesus takes to be a LITERAL announcement of the end. Well, we know the Apostles said this exact thing, so they MUST have been right or been in error.
Jesus said his apostles would see the Olivet signs come to pass, and would see them in THEIR generation:
Matthew 24:33-34
So, YOU too [the apostles], when YOU [the apostles] see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door. Truly I say TO YOU [the apostles] this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.
Jesus is a false prophet if futurism is right.
Futurism is error, and Jesus is a true prophet.
Whoa! Jesus just told the apostles NOT to follow anyone that says "The time is near" until the signs of the end come - the famines, pestilences, earthquakes, persecutions by governments, etc. So, if Jesus was referring to some time period more than 1950 years down the road, then all of the disciples who claimed the time WAS near should NOT be followed, according to Christ.
That would make John, Peter, James, & Paul FALSE TEACHERS and FALSE PROPHETS according to today's Futurist Theology because they DID say the time was near in their epistles found in the New Testament!!!!
And He said, "See to it that you are not misled; for many will come in My name, saying, 'I am He,' and, 'THE TIME IS NEAR.' Do not go after them (NASB - Luke 21:8)
for many shall come in my name, saying -- I am [he], and THE TIME HATH COME NIGH; go not on then after them; (YLT - Luke 21:8)
I think it is very clear from the lips of Jesus here that the statement "the time hath come nigh" is a sign of false brothers as much as saying "I am he." And so we see how this makes false brothers out of the apostles (by futurist standards), for the apostles said exactly this:
PETER:
"But the end of all things IS AT HAND" (1 Peter 4:7)
PAUL:
"But I say this, my brothers, THE TIME IS SHORT; and from now it will be wise for those who have wives to be as if they had them not " (1 Cor 7:29)
"for yet A VERY VERY LITTLE [WHILE], He who is coming will come, and will not tarry" (Hebrews 10:37)
"Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone, AND THE DAY IS NEAR." (Rom 13:11-12)
JOHN
"Dear children, THE LAST HOUR IS COME; and as you once heard that there was to be an anti-Christ, so even now many anti-Christs have appeared. By this we know that THE LAST HOUR IS COME." (1 John 2:18)
"This is the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things WHICH MUST HAPPEN SOON ... Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things that are written in it, FOR THE TIME IS AT HAND." ( Revelation 1:1,3)
Futurists, of course, don't take any of the apostles' time statments LITERALLY. Yet Jesus said that those who would say 'THE TIME IS NEAR' were not to be followed by the apostles. The only ones who had the authority to determine the true time of the end of the age was the apostles -- and they all declared 'THE TIME IS NEAR.' Since Jesus takes the statement 'THE TIME IS NEAR' to be a LITERAL declaration that the endtime has come, then futurists cannot take allegorically all the apostles statements saying 'THE TIME IS NEAR'. This presents two dilemmas for futurists:
(1) If the apostles said 'THE TIME IS NEAR' when the time was not yet even close, then they were the very false ones specified by Luke 21:8
(2) If the apostles said 'THE TIME IS NEAR," and Jesus takes that statement to mean literally that the endtime has come, then futurists must ALSO take such statements to mean the time has indeed come and must believe the apostles on the issue of TIME or else declare them false prophets. The option of allegorizing time away is not permitted by Luke 21:8, for Jesus takes such statements to mean the end has indeed come.
If it should be said that Christ did not return in that generation as he and all the apostles unanimously taught, then they are false prophets and Christianity is based upon false teachers. If one cannot trust the "WHEN" passages spoken by Christ and the apostles (who were unanimous that Jesus would return in the Father's glory in their generation), then one cannot trust ANY passages on bible prophecy.
Fortunately, God keeps his word -- the destruction of the Nation, Jerusalem, and Temple is the subject of the Olivet Discourse. Jesus returned WHEN and HOW he said.
Jesus himself taught his return would be in the lifetimes of the apostles, and they in turn taught this to others as ESSENTIAL. Jesus even blesses the preterist understanding of the statement "THE TIME IS NEAR" (Luke 21:8), which Jesus takes to be a LITERAL announcement of the end. Well, we know the Apostles said this exact thing, so they MUST have been right or been in error.
Jesus said his apostles would see the Olivet signs come to pass, and would see them in THEIR generation:
Matthew 24:33-34
So, YOU too [the apostles], when YOU [the apostles] see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door. Truly I say TO YOU [the apostles] this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.
Jesus is a false prophet if futurism is right.
Futurism is error, and Jesus is a true prophet.