Q: In Matthew 10:23, Jesus tells the apostles that Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of Man be come. But here we are almost 2,000 years later, and Hes still not here. Isnt this a false prophecy?
A: The coming here is not the Second Coming. Consider the context: Jesus is sending out His apostles as His harbingers /in Galilee/. In Matthew 10:23, Jesus isnt referring to His coming in the clouds. Hes talking about His own arrival in the various cities which the apostles are about to tour. Consider the untenableness of the Refers-to-the-Second-Coming interpretation here for a minute: what is obvious to /us/ regarding 2,000 years would have been just as obvious to Matthew regarding a few decades.
There is, though, something to the idea that Jesus words refer to the Second Coming, even though that is not the literal meaning that they had when Jesus uttered these words to His apostles. I think that Matthew adapts the Galilean preaching-tour, and Jesus instructions about it, as a sort of didactic template for the work of Christian missions as a whole. In other words, there are spiritual motifs embedded in Matthews account of Jesus words -- motifs which are applicable beyond their immediate context.
When one considers this deeper level of meaning, one needs to plant both feet on one the same level, so to speak, and not simultaneously approach one component of a sentence as a literal quantity and another component of the same sentence as a symbolic quantity. When one looks at this verse spiritually -- i.e., not only as a message of Jesus to his apostles as they began the Galilean tour, but as a message of Jesus to all missionaries in the church -- the phrase till the Son of Man comes *does* refer to the Second Coming, but the cities of Israel has a spiritual application too, referring to all the elect.
Yours in Christ,
Waterrock
A: The coming here is not the Second Coming. Consider the context: Jesus is sending out His apostles as His harbingers /in Galilee/. In Matthew 10:23, Jesus isnt referring to His coming in the clouds. Hes talking about His own arrival in the various cities which the apostles are about to tour. Consider the untenableness of the Refers-to-the-Second-Coming interpretation here for a minute: what is obvious to /us/ regarding 2,000 years would have been just as obvious to Matthew regarding a few decades.
There is, though, something to the idea that Jesus words refer to the Second Coming, even though that is not the literal meaning that they had when Jesus uttered these words to His apostles. I think that Matthew adapts the Galilean preaching-tour, and Jesus instructions about it, as a sort of didactic template for the work of Christian missions as a whole. In other words, there are spiritual motifs embedded in Matthews account of Jesus words -- motifs which are applicable beyond their immediate context.
When one considers this deeper level of meaning, one needs to plant both feet on one the same level, so to speak, and not simultaneously approach one component of a sentence as a literal quantity and another component of the same sentence as a symbolic quantity. When one looks at this verse spiritually -- i.e., not only as a message of Jesus to his apostles as they began the Galilean tour, but as a message of Jesus to all missionaries in the church -- the phrase till the Son of Man comes *does* refer to the Second Coming, but the cities of Israel has a spiritual application too, referring to all the elect.
Yours in Christ,
Waterrock
