Tuesday 13 October 2015

Significance & Insignificance of AD70

In discussing the significance of AD70; and in defining the "coming" of the Lord, and the "end of the world", we need to keep the following in mind: 1. It was already the "end of the world" 40 years earlier, when Jesus died (said the writer to the Hebrews) 2. And yet the "end of all things" (not only of Israeli things) was still to come 3. It was already "the last hour" when John wrote his epistle, probably some years before AD70 3. In fact Jesus already said, "The time is fulfilled", at the very start of His ministry 4. Paul said "then cometh the end" - when? AFTER the resurrection of the dead - after the LAST trumpet. How many "last" trumpets can there be? These components of "the end" didn't happen in AD70 - they're still future. 5. Daniel said 70 weeks were determined for the Jewish people - not 70 weeks plus nearly an extra 40 years. Defining AD70 as the "end" instead of seeing a wider meaning of the end, adds a gap in the 70 weeks. It's a shorter gap than Dispensationalism's gap, but it's still a gap 6. Jesus already said "it is finished" - on the cross, not in AD70 7. Way before AD70, the Old Covenant already ended, the New had already begun 8. There was already neither Jew nor Greek 9. The Law was already superseded by Grace 10. It was the same Church before AD70 as it is now after AD70 It seems AD70 was only the physical aftermath of spiritual and covenantal things which had already happened (Since Messiah was to come after 69 weeks, that is, at the start of the 70th week, and if that marked Jesus' baptism by John, and since He was to be cut off in the midst of that week, that is 31/2years later, that would leave 31/2 years for Israel. Could that take us up to the martyrdom of Stephen? Stephen's sermon was like the judge's hammer against Israel. And from that point on, the focus of the Book of Acts turned to the Gentiles.) So could we define "the End" as everything from the time John the Baptist made Messiah known to Israel, through to the cross, through to Stephen's martyrdom, inclusive of AD70, inclusive of the entire Church age, and culminating in the coming of Christ when the dead shall rise? All of that is called "the time of the end"; the "last hour"; the "end of the world"; the "fullness of time". If Daniel's 70th week began at the time of Jesus' ministry, it may therefore have been possible for Jesus to predict on that basis that everything Daniel had predicted, with regard to Israel, and with regard to the Temple, would be seen by that generation; whereas "of THAT day and hour" - that is, of the day of His "coming" and the "end of the world" - knoweth no man. Then there shall be new heavens and a new earth, literally. So from the time of John the Baptist until now, the Kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. The end meant the "end of all things" - not just the end of Old Covenant Israeli things. But the end of the Old Covenant was part of the end things. The future resurrection is also part of the end things. So is everything in between. So Matthew 24 discusses things which are now past, which happened within that generation (in answer to the question about the Temple); but it also discusses the coming of the Lord and the end of the world, which are still future (in answer to questions about his coming and the end of the world). "This generation shall not pass til all these things be fulfilled" refers to the first question; while "but of that day and hour knoweth no man" refers to the next two questions. And not even the Son of Man knew how long would span between the two. But regardless of how long the timespan is, intrinsically it's all called "the last days" in character. How does that sound? I'm not sure, of course.

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