1. The dual nature of prophecy
The prophecy of Christ, was in response to the following questions of his students: "Tell us, when will they become, and what is the point of this and your end of the age?" (24/kd: 3).
He made these questions together because they thought that the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem which had just spoken, would be with the end of the world. In the Old Testament, as Jews, had not understand that the Coming of Christ would be both. So I think that very soon they would be together all foretold, and Christ will liberate them from the Romans after the destruction of the Temple.
Jesus knew that the physical destruction of the Temple would be much sooner, in that same generation. And he knew also that the end of the age would require much more time. Thus began their answers simultaneously at two questions, using the state would face a few years as a foretaste, or FIRST IMPLEMENTATION OF futures eschatological events which will happen later. Use phrases and sentences so that in one period will be met by one way and the other in another way, and both of them could be understood by the careful student of Divine Houses.
2. Quotes by direct fulfillment in Jerusalem in 70 AD
Here are some quotes from the prophecy of the two Evangelists, which proved lifesaving for Christians to 70 AD:
Matthew 23/kg: 36 Verily I say unto you that ixei these things for this generation. 37 Jerusalem Jerusalem apoktennousa the prophets and stoned the envoys to it! Posakis he would episynagagein your children being so episynagei nossia the hen itself in Tas wing, and not he would ... "
Matthew 24/kd: 1 and come out Jesus marched from the sanctuary; and his disciples came unto him epideixai Tas building of the sanctuary. 2 And Jesus said to them my view these things? Verily I say unto you, my not let myself hereby apply stone on stone, nd nd katalythisetai. 3 seating and that on the Mount of Olives the disciples came to him in private, saying, ask from something when everything will have no us, and what the sign of thy presence and of the age ;..."
"Luke 21/ka: 20 kykloumenin when ye shall see Jerusalem in the camps, then gnote ingiken that the desolation thereof. 21 then in Judea flee to the mountains, and amid this ekchoreitosan, and these non-tais chorais eiserchesthosan against it, 22 that the days of vengeance these things eisi plirothinai things that are written. 23 and woe in tais tais and gastro echousais thilazousais in those days · you will have no need for big gar on the land and wrath to the people that end, 24 and the sword shall fall, and aichmalotisthisontai to all nations, and Jerusalem will have no patoumeni in nations unto plirothosi Times nations ... "
Matthew 24/kd: 34 Verily I say unto you, my non-expired generation, until he be if all these things. 35 heaven and earth pass away, and that my words not parelthosi. "
These passages were mainly implemented in the fall of Jerusalem in the first century AD, and shadow are applicable to eschatology. Other passages are mainly eschatological application, and skiodos applied in the first century Jerusalem. We look forward to our future studies to analyze in detail, and here we will deal specifically with the issue of "generation" mentioned by Christ.
3. The misinterpretation of the Watchtower
Due to ignorance, heresies and unbelievers, misunderstood the words of Christ, and twist, everyone in the target and desire. But his words are pure and clear, to anyone who knows the Bible and the Christian faith. Let's start with the misconception of the Watchtower organization.
For years the company, taught with certainty that the intervention of God to human, it will be "before the expiration of the life of the generation of 1914" ("You can live" p. 154). Indeed, the magazine of "Awake" for decades, consistently wrote the first page. But it refrained from setting a time for word generation. So long had an "elastic" meaning, which extends more and more. By the time he came to define his generation as the period of your life, "70 and 80 years in strength."
We will not deal here with the changes that have made the Watchtower on the very old past decades when talking about the generation of 1914. We'll see the most recent of psefdoprofiteia. (If the reader cares about the past changes of the company for the generation of 1914, can find information in France Refmont book "Crisis of Conscience").
This doctrine for the generation of 1914, the Watchtower in support of such a misunderstanding of Jesus in subsection Matthew 24:34: "Verily I say unto you, do not want this generation passed geinosi till all these things"
In his book "You can live" p. 154 Fri the 8th, the Society adds the phrase "including the end of the system." But Jesus did not say anything like that. This assumes the Watchtower without proof. In fact, the context of section throughout the discussion of Christ, show the opposite.
First, no speaker or writer mentioned in the Bible, did not use the phrase "this generation" for any other generation except his own. If he meant another generation, would say: "this", but "she". Christ himself often used the phrase "this generation" meant and always his own, his contemporaries. This appears in subsections:
Matthew 11:16-19 "tini and likeness this generation? Same Estin paidiois kathimenois in a market-tais prosfonounta ... gar John came neither esthion nor drinker, and they say: a genius. Came the Son of Man and esthion drinker and they say: Behold man and phage winebibber, fees friend amrtolon ... "
Clearly Jesus with the phrase "this generation" described on the contemporaries.
Luke 7:31 "tini likeness people of this generation ...;"
Mark 8:38 "For he who epaischynthei if me and grounds me in this generation the adulterous and sinful, the Son of man epaischynthisetai him when he comes in the glory of his father ..."
It is clear that the word "principle itself" defines the generation of the speaker and not one after 2000 years. However, there is clearer evidence. In the following paragraphs we will see that before Christ said that "it wants passed this generation," he said something else:
Matthew 23:34-36 "... send to you prophets ... want to kill ... you whipped in the synagogues you ... life come upon you (on you ).... Verily I say all these things shall come to this generation. "
It is obvious that here Jesus speaks to the Jews of his day (Matthew 23:29) and foretells the persecution that they did against the Christians. It could refer to some Farissaious later time, because the Jewish system was destroyed in his own generation, 70 AD On this, his own generation, would the blood of the slain witnesses and especially on Jerusalem, as seen in the next 3 verses (23:37-39).
At the same contextual Christ spoke of the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem "does not want to let yourself go along here stone stone" (24/kd :1-2). And those were just words that caused the question "when will everything be?" (24/kd: 3) at school.
In this question, then, answered Jesus when he said the phenomena in the 24th chapter of Matthew, including 24:34 to look "does not want passed this generation ginosi till all these things."
It could therefore mean any other generation, only the generation of its time.
So we have 3 witnesses to the fact that Jesus spoke of a generation that was already present:
a) According to the grammar, if he meant another, it should say "that generation" and not "this"
b) The Bible uses the phrase only for the generation of the speaker.
c) The contextual Matthew 23:36 indicates that Jesus was talking about the generation of AD 33-70 and even uses the same words "all these things shall come to this generation"
Eventually, even the Watchtower was forced to concede a circuitous route that Jesus was here speaking for the generation of times and that blood would run over them, would lead to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD over one generation! The Watchtower, 15/7/1985 p. 13 writes: "But that Jerusalem did not accept Jesus as Messiah and king and never released. Instead destroyed by Roman hands in 70 AD, bringing disaster to the children." Although not directly mentioned here in "generation" (because it would spoil the recipe for the Generation of 1914), the Watchtower applied so the warnings of Christ to those in Jerusalem.
For years, they say the followers of the Watchtower, and told us "apostates" and "misguided" and that when the end will come at the end of the generation of 1914 will see the mistake ...
But time passes inexorably for false prophets. 80 years and over. And then the Watchtower took the big decision: to make another change, the psefdoprofiteia to mend it. So aside from the magazine "Awake" indicating the second page in the generation of 1914. And suddenly the Watchtower "discovered" that speaks of the evil race of people! Course correction, so the inconsistency of grammar, saying that the word "was" talking about something that is currently listed.
Of course, (as is always the Watchtower), once even managed to choose an interpretation that is a fundamental difference in interpretation of the holy Christian Church. For the words, St. John Chrysostom explains the following: "and left this generation of believers, the way eirimenon intermittent (Chrysost. Memo to Matt. Speaking oz, 1). So unlike the interpretation of the Watchtower, the Christian interpretation of St. John Chrysostom, is that the eschatological fulfillment of the words of Christ is for believers, not unbelievers! And this is supported by another aspect of the prophecy: When the race of believers WILL NEVER STOP, unlike the race of infidels, just before the end of days, you will stop the expansion of the Gospel throughout the world. Therefore we can not speak for unbelievers but for believers, as you correctly state the Saint John Chrysostom.
However, whether one wants to believe that the eschatological paragraph talking about the "evil race of infidels" or "good race of believers" who were then in fact, that in no case has corrected that with this the Watchtower for decades, was once more PSEFDOPROFITIS.
4. The opposite misconception
But the ingenuity of irrelevant to the Bible, is impressive, as each tries to promote his own ideas, and not try to understand the spirit of the written. While the Watchtower misinterpret many years that speaks for the (eschatological against the Watchtower) generation of 1914, an opposite trend, trying to say that Jesus was speaking only for his own generation, and only at the end of the world for him pull out a failed prophet of the end.
These people want to ignore three things:
1. That first part of the prophecy of Christ fulfilled ALREADY IN THE GENERATION, which makes their claims to eschatological prophecy just funny.
2. That Christ, as we said while answering two questions, one for walking the destruction of Jerusalem and one to the utmost, so his words had double application. (This also common in the Bible, without prior double question).
3. That the word "generation" does not mean only people of his time in the next 40 years, (ie as done to replace his father by his son), but aimainei and "race" is a group of people with the same . For example: "the race of infidels" (as understood by the Watchtower), "the race of Christians" (as understood by Saint John Chrysostom), "the race of the Jews" (understood as the others) etc. And those three mentioned above, are aimed at something that already existed in the era of Christ, so quite rightly explaining the word "it".
So Jesus spoke very clearly in two senses of the word generation to cover the two unrelated questions from students: 1. The concept of "modern" who would see the fall of Jerusalem in their lifetime, and 2. With the concept of the genus of Christians, who would remain with the same evil as the second meeting after thousands of years.
Perhaps even the words of Christ to have more than two interpretations is usually the spiritual, but that we leave to those with the lighting to analyze, and stick to simply and easily.
In this way, then that must be addressed and understood the prophecy of Christ. Every sentence must be considered if the primary performance season or to the utmost, and then searched in the same sentence and the second meeting. While on our site have already been mentioned in several articles in our considerations of this prophecy, we hope eventually to publish a series of interpretive articles, which explain in detail the entire prophecy.
5. The "generation" within the meaning of "race".
At this point, it is useful to answer an objection: Maybe someone say that "another is the word" generation "and the other the word" gender "and wrongly interpret it that way. So let us respond to it.
Indeed, if you do a search in the New Testament, we see that the word "generation", defines the "modern" one, or periods of 30-45 years. And the word "gender", use it separately to this form.
But if we open a dictionary, we see that the word "generation" has the meaning of "race", regardless that does not use the New Testament (Clearly) in this way.
There is the use of the word "generation" in the sense of gender, in the Old Testament, especially in the used by Jesus and the apostles. This means that using the word as "gender" in the sense there was something unknown in Christ. Easily could do this "pun" (a pun on it it, to give a prophecy with ambiguous words, to be implemented in two different seasons to millennia distance between them). For the writer, it is clear that Jesus uses the word obviously the most common meaning of "modern", but also for those who want to penetrate the eschatological fulfillment of His words, and has hidden meaning of "race", which known in the Old Testament
Besides, St. John Chrysostom, in this sense the perceived word, applying it to "race" of Christians. And the language of St. John were very close to the scripting language of the Gospels, and can not be attributed to the word a meaning that was lacking.
Let's look at three random examples of passages in the Old Testament using the word "generation", meaning "race":
"3 And he said unto Jacob • Abstain into the land of thy father and thy in the generation and esomai with you" (Genesis 31/la: 3).
"He asked us to man and the generation telling us • more severe if the loss of you father and brother where is he among you?" (Genesis 43/mg: 6)
"Exelefsetai and forgive the children that were with him and apelefsetai to the generation that, in the kataschesin the patrikin apodrameitai" (Leviticus 25/ke: 41).