Did Jesus return in His generation?

Matthew 24 is a very popular passage when it comes to eschatology. Christ is asked what would become a very popular question for 2,000 years: "When are you coming back?" Or, more specifically, "Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?" (v3).

Famously, though much to the chagrin of many popular preachers, His ultimate answer is "...of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only." (v36). In other words, you can't say "it will be 100 years after Israel becomes a nation again", or "it'll be in 2033, exactly 2,000 years after He ascended". In fact, Jesus goes further and says "Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect." (v42-44).

So basically, we have no idea when Jesus is coming back, we just have to be constantly prepared for the fact that He is. But Jesus doesn't take 40 verses just to say what could as easily be said in one or two. He gives us a whole speech about what to look out for. He tells us, for example, "...you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet." (v6). Note, contrary to its popular usage, that He says the end is not yet. So we can reasonably surmise that popular preachers who say things like "ok, Russia attacked Ukraine, so clearly Jesus is coming back within the decade" are preaching from the wrong end of their bodies.

But not all false teachers are Futurists. As shown in the meme in the header image, there are people, known as "Preterists", who believe Jesus both promised to return in His generation, and fulfilled that promise.

As the meme suggests, two popular proof texts for this are Matthew 24, verses 30 and 34. Taken together, these say "Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." (...) "Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place."

But instead of reading verses 30 and 34, it's actually quite helpful to read verses 30 to 34. When we do this, here's what happens: "Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. “Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near—at the doors! Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place." (Emphasis added).

You see, then, that contrary to the assertion of the meme, and Preterists overall, Jesus does not say He will return in His generation, but in "this" generation. But "this" generation does not mean "the generation to which I am currently speaking". Rather, it is to the generation that sees all these things. What are "all these things"? And has any generation seen them all? Let's go through the whole of Matthew 24 to figure that out:

• False Christs (v5, 24). Seen.

• Wars and rumours of wars (v6-7). Seen.

• Famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places (v7). Seen.

• Persecution of the faithful (v9-10). Seen.

• False prophets rising up to deceive many (v11, 24). Seen.

• Abounding lawlessness and a lack of love (v12). Seen.

• The Gospel being preached to all the nations (v14). Debatable.

• Daniel's "abomination of desolation" (v15). Not seen.

• Greater tribulation than the world has ever seen, or will ever see (v21), of a scale so great that no flesh can survive it unless it is cut short (v22). Not seen.

• A universally self-evident return of Christ (v27, 30). Not seen.

• The sun and moon darkened (v29). Not seen.

• His elect being gathered up by angels (v31). Not seen.

• The rapture (v40-41). Not seen.

From the above, we notice a theme. Some events are extremely broad and general, so much so that literally every generation has seen them since the dawn of the faith. We've always had false Christs, false prophets, wars, natural disasters, and abundant lawlessness. This is nothing new, it's just something that has to happen for God's plan to be completed.

But as Christ continues, He gets more specific. He tells us "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come." (v14). This is where things start to get debatable. Have we seen this? Given that the end has not come, we can say, with a reasonable degree of confidence, that no, the Gospel has not yet been preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations. This makes sense, because the word here for "nations" is "ethnos" (ἔθνος), which does not refer to "nations" as we currently understand them, but more accurately refers to people groups. It's where we get our term "ethnicity", and there are literally hundreds, arguably even thousands of ethnicities who have yet to receive the Gospel.

But after verse 14, the debate over whether any generation has seen these signs fades, being stacked very heavily against the full Preterist. Many specific events, from Daniel's "abomination of desolation" up to and including an actual rapture, have not occurred.

Chief among the signs of the end that have not yet occurred is the return of Christ Himself. The way Christ describes it is "“Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand. “Therefore if they say to you, ‘Look, He is in the desert!’ do not go out; or ‘Look, He is in the inner rooms!’ do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together. “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." (v23-30).

From this, it's clear that if Christ had truly returned in His generation, we would not need anyone to tell us. It would be as obvious as a lightning strike. Yet, strangely, Preterists do feel the need to tell us Christ returned within His generation. Simply because no one else did. Not one of the Apostles, even John. Not one of the early bishops. Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp, all conveniently omitted to mention Christ's return. No Church "Fathers", no prominent Christian authors or apologists, literally no one who believed in Christ saw fit to mention the fact that He came back? Why is it, if Christ boasts of how blindingly obvious His return will be, so much so that He warns us not to listen to anyone who says He is here, or there, that Preterists think it already happened so secretly that literally no one saw it, and not a single Christian recorded it for centuries after?

While Preterists argue that Christ promised He would return in His generation, the same passage they refer to tells us very plainly: do not listen to them. When Jesus returns, and He will, it will not be some secret event that no one bothers to write about for centuries after. It will be so spectacular that no one dares to doubt it. It will be universally self evident. The Church will know it, and rejoice. Christ's enemies will know it, and mourn. The devil himself will not have a rug big enough to sweep it under, or a lid so large he can put it on. Preterism is a mockery of Christ. It is a modern farce that needs to be swiftly and fully eliminated.

AI usage

No AI was used to produce this article.