Objective:
Lesson 4 Catastrophe Imminent
To show that Jesus predicted a violent catastrophe for the people who were his contemporaries.
- Please read Luke 13:1-9
a) Some Galileans had been murdered by Pilate. Jesus said; “Unless you repent, you shall all likewise perish”. According to Strong’s Concordance, the word translated “likewise” means “in the same way”. In other words, Jesus said repent or die by sword or spear… That message does not apply to unrepentant sinners today; but it certainly applied to Jewish sinners who lived in the last days before 70 AD.
b) Some people had been killed in the collapse of a tower. Jesus said: “Unless you repent you shall all likewise perish”. According to Strong’s Concordance, the word translated “likewise” means “in the same way”. In other words, Jesus said repent or die a violent death. I hope that you agree that Jesus’ warning does not apply to all people for all time. Here, as in so many other places in the New Testament, Jesus is warning his contemporaries that unless they repented, they would die in the catastrophe that would come upon that generation.
c) Several times in Bamboozled Believers, I comment on translator bias. It seems that sometimes translators distort Scripture to promote the futurist delusion. Here is another example: the New International Version of the verses above, omits the word “likewise”. Is this simply a translator’s error or do you suspect a more nefarious reason for the omission?
- Please read Luke 11:47-51 and Matt. 23:29-39.
a) Jesus told the scribes and Pharisees that their generation would be punished for all of the murders of prophets and apostles that had been committed down through the ages.
b) Please put yourself in the place of Jesus followers. If those who did not repent were to die violently, if the scribes and Pharisees of that generation were to be punished, and if their house was to be left desolate, then doesn’t it seem reasonable that Jesus’ disciples would expect that a great catastrophe was coming soon?
Lesson 4 Catastrophe Imminent
Objective:
To show that Jesus predicted a violent catastrophe for the people who were his contemporaries.
- Please read Luke 13:1-9
a) Some Galileans had been murdered by Pilate. Jesus said; “Unless you repent, you shall all likewise perish”. According to Strong’s Concordance, the word translated “likewise” means “in the same way”. In other words, Jesus said repent or die by sword or spear… That message does not apply to unrepentant sinners today; but it certainly applied to Jewish sinners who lived in the last days before 70 AD.
b) Some people had been killed in the collapse of a tower. Jesus said: “Unless you repent you shall all likewise perish”. According to Strong’s Concordance, the word translated “likewise” means “in the same way”. In other words, Jesus said repent or die a violent death. I hope that you agree that Jesus’ warning does not apply to all people for all time. Here, as in so many other places in the New Testament, Jesus is warning his contemporaries that unless they repented, they would die in the catastrophe that would come upon that generation.
c) Several times in Bamboozled Believers, I comment on translator bias. It seems that sometimes translators distort Scripture to promote the futurist delusion. Here is another example: the New International Version of the verses above, omits the word “likewise”. Is this simply a translator’s error or do you suspect a more nefarious reason for the omission?
- Please read Luke 11:47-51 and Matt. 23:29-39.
a) Jesus told the scribes and Pharisees that their generation would be punished for all of the murders of prophets and apostles that had been committed down through the ages.
b) Please put yourself in the place of Jesus followers. If those who did not repent were to die violently, if the scribes and Pharisees of that generation were to be punished, and if their house was to be left desolate, then doesn’t it seem reasonable that Jesus’ disciples would expect that a great catastrophe was coming soon?
3. Please read Matt. 24:1-3.
a) Speaking of the magnificent temple in Jerusalem, Jesus said: “There will not here be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down.”
b) His disciples asked when this would happen. Jesus gave them a list of things that would happen first and then he said: “This generation will not pass away until all these things take place” (Matt. 24:34). In this passage Jesus predicts the destruction of the temple and he says that it would be destroyed before that generation had passed away. He predicted a catastrophe that was about 40 years away. That catastrophe was definitely imminent when the last of the epistles and John’s Revelation were written.
c) Note: I did not ask you to read Matt. 24: 1-34. This passage is key to this study, but I will delay our analysis of Jesus’ Olivet discourse until I have laid more foundation.
4. Please read Luke 23:28-30. Just days after delivering his Olivet discourse, Jesus was arrested and crucified. He paused during his tortured walk down the Via de la Rosa; he turned to some women who were wailing and lamenting. He said: “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children…” He knew that a terrible catastrophe would overwhelm them.
5. Let’s pause to review: in the first four lessons, I presented some quotes from James, John and Paul showing that they all expected Jesus to return soon. Then I quoted Jesus saying that unrepentant sinners were to die violently; he said that the scribes and Pharisees of that generation were to be punished for all of the murders of the prophets that their forefathers had committed. He said that the temple would be leveled before that generation passed away. He told the women of Jerusalem to weep for themselves and for their children… Dear reader, are you beginning to see that the New Testament was written by men who were anticipating that Jesus would return soon? Do you see that when James, John, Peter and Paul wrote their epistles, the end of the old covenant age was near. Dear reader, we have only scratched the surface… if you read pages 1 to 5 of Bamboozled Believers, you see a discussion of Matt. 16:27-28… there are many more such passages, so we shall continue. In the next lesson you will see that John the Baptist forcefully proclaimed the same message.
3. Please read Matt. 24:1-3.
a) Speaking of the magnificent temple in Jerusalem, Jesus said: “There will not here be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down.”
b) His disciples asked when this would happen. Jesus gave them a list of things that would happen first and then he said: “This generation will not pass away until all these things take place” (Matt. 24:34). In this passage Jesus predicts the destruction of the temple and he says that it would be destroyed before that generation had passed away. He predicted a catastrophe that was about 40 years away. That catastrophe was definitely imminent when the last of the epistles and John’s Revelation were written.
c) Note: I did not ask you to read Matt. 24: 1-34. This passage is key to this study, but I will delay our analysis of Jesus’ Olivet discourse until I have laid more foundation.
4. Please read Luke 23:28-30. Just days after delivering his Olivet discourse, Jesus was arrested and crucified. He paused during his tortured walk down the Via de la Rosa; he turned to some women who were wailing and lamenting. He said: “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children…” He knew that a terrible catastrophe would overwhelm them.
5. Let’s pause to review: in the first four lessons, I presented some quotes from James, John and Paul showing that they all expected Jesus to return soon. Then I quoted Jesus saying that unrepentant sinners were to die violently; he said that the scribes and Pharisees of that generation were to be punished for all of the murders of the prophets that their forefathers had committed. He said that the temple would be leveled before that generation passed away. He told the women of Jerusalem to weep for themselves and for their children… Dear reader, are you beginning to see that the New Testament was written by men who were anticipating that Jesus would return soon? Do you see that when James, John, Peter and Paul wrote their epistles, the end of the old covenant age was near. Dear reader, we have only scratched the surface… if you read pages 1 to 5 of Bamboozled Believers, you see a discussion of Matt. 16:27-28… there are many more such passages, so we shall continue. In the next lesson you will see that John the Baptist forcefully proclaimed the same message.