I agree. Those who deny that the nation of Israel will be restored should pay attention to this. Often the argument is that the nation is presently anti-Christian, showing no interest in converting to Christianity. But God has been gathering the nation back into their land for a future spiritual restoration, although it will also obviously include judgment against those who wish to prevent this.
Right so, the fig tree brings forth new leaves, but does not bear fruit yet.. do you see the picture Jesus was painting here?
The tree has leaves, but no fruit still, just before the second coming, you could say it blossoms, that's when they call for Jesus to return and save them, during the time of trouble,
Think about Psalm 18 for a moment
4 The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid.
5 The sorrows of hell compassed me about: the snares of death prevented me.
6 In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears.
7 Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because he was wroth.
8 There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it.
9 He bowed the heavens also, and came down: and darkness was under his feet.
10 And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind.
11 He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.
12 At the brightness that was before him his thick clouds passed, hail stones and coals of fire.
13 The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire.
While many may just see this as a nice prayer of faith to the Lord.. I see it as prophetic.. because compare this to the 5th and 6th seals in Revelation 6, and the first trumpet in Revelation 8..
Check it out, it flows in line with it
there's persecution, distress, ungodly men flooding into Jerusalem around the time of the Abomination of Desolation (5th seal), then, they cry out to the Lord... and the earth shakes, the skies become darkened, the heavens roll back (bowing the heavens), and
He comes down, followed by hail and fire (like the first trumpet)
now we continue, and I find this amazing
16 He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters.
17 He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which hated me: for they were too strong for me.
18 They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the Lord was my stay.
19 He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me.
20 The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me.
The Lord comes down from heaven, and His reward is with Him, and here the psalmist is even being gathered to Him, out of many waters (out of exile among the heathen). The thing the Jews gotta get on board with is that the cleanness isn't their works, but salvation in Christ.
anyway.. that's the picture painted in scripture, the Jews are scattered, regathered in unbelief, put through a time of intense persecution, and then call out for Jesus and He comes back as promised in Matthew 23. He comes back.. and then starts pouring wrath on the heathen, He comes back to receive the faithful, and destroy the ungodly.
and I find it an extra touch that the first trumpet is in this psalm.
The signs were "birth pains," which is a very negative thing. The sign of Christ's Coming Jesus indicated was his return from heaven, and not preliminary signs of advance warning. By contrast, the "birth pain" signs were an early warning to Jesus' disciples to prepare to escape before judgment fell upon Jerusalem through a pagan army. They were also a testimonial against Israel for failing to live in righteousness, indicating there would be judgment for this choice.
The reason why birth pains were used as a metaphor is again, to paint a picture. Labor is painful, it is miserable, but the end result of it is a child that is a blessing and a joy, and makes it worth all the pain and labor.
What Jesus was conveying is that there would be a period of pain and suffering through persecution unlike anything ever experienced, and like labor, it'd get more frequent and more intense the closer to birth it got.
But at the end of this labor, Christ comes back, it's worth the pain and suffering.
If you don't have Christ coming at the end of your labor... the metaphor crumbles and doesn't work.
Putting a 2000 year gap between the hard labor pains and Christ's return doesn't make any sense for the analogy.
Actually, discourses like this are not geometric in construction, and make little sense when organized to facilitate a presupposed doctrinal position. Common sense tells you what Jesus is saying, and not a particular order in the discussion. In reality, conversations can include flashbacks, prolepses, recaps, etc. When you try to arrange this by presupposed doctrine, you will mess up the *sense* of the conversation.
It's still in the context, and Jesus did not exclude His return from "all these things" That's only in your mind because you adhere to a position based on taking a verse out of context.
I don't know what you're trying to prove, but "quickly" and "soon" are in fact synonyms. And "quickly" is used to give the sense that "soon" means there is a direct approach to the intended goal, avoiding digressions and interruptions. It doesn't at all have to mean "immediately," since the goal can be a long ways off and still you are shortening the path to get there by avoiding unnecessary delays.
Not for a series of events. Quickly just means rapidly going from 1 event to the next, even if there is significant delay beforehand.
Let's look at it from a real world perspective.
The temple institute in Israel can build a temple quickly, they have the materials and money to do it, it's all ready.
They cannot however, do it soon, because the political climate won't allow them.
They have waited decades to be able to do it, but once they are able to do it, they can have the temple built quickly, in a year or two.
This is not common sense speaking, but some kind of agenda. "Quickly" means "without unnecessary delay." It has little to do with pinpointing an exact time for the goal to be reached.
Nope, quickly just means that once it starts, it progresses without delay. but there can be delay in the start.
Jesus indicated his 2nd Coming would take place *at the end of the age.* He did not give the day and hour. He did say it would come without delay.
The birth pain signs that he provided he did say would take place in his own generation. He did not provide a specific day and hour, but he did say what generation it would be fulfilled in. All of the signs of Jerusalem's collapse took place in the generation of his apostles, to whom he spoke.
That's not quickly, that'd be soon but not quickly because there's a massive delay between 1 event and the next.
Again, Jesus excepted his 2nd Coming from the Birth Pain signs that he was alluding to from the time he first mentioned them. His Coming was indicated to be the ultimate goal of the totality of these things, but not part of the "birth pain" signs of the fall of Jerusalem, which would happen in 70 AD. The 70 AD event was intended to be the target of the "birth pain" signs.
Clearly, the "birth pain" signs were "all these things," and "all these things" were intended to lead to the 70 AD Judgment. Jesus' "Coming" was the thing that would happen at the end of the judgment to which he referred, which only began a long age of Jewish Judgment.
Again, the main thing to which he referred was the Jewish Punishment initiated in 70 AD. The birth pains obviously preceded this. But this destruction of the temple and Jerusalem only began a long, long age of Jewish exile and punishment that would end with Jesus' Coming. Obviously, Jesus was excepting his Coming from the signs of Jewish Judgment in 70 AD!
YOU except the return from "all these things".
but nothing in scripture does.
