God doesn't know what He will bring about?
Again, God, from the beginning, declares the end.
He can do that.
Indeed. And God knows what He can and cannot bring about, from the beginning.
He doesn't need omniscience to do that.
WRONG.
At NO POINT in that entire passage does Jesus speak about a "future generation."
I literally quoted the passage for you, GD. Why did you ignore it?
Here it is again:
"So YOU also, when YOU see all these things,
know that it is near...
THIS GENERATION will by no means pass away till all these things take place"
It's clear as day!
Again:
He is speaking privately to His disciples. (cf verse 3)
He says "THIS generation."
He says "when YOU see all these things."
There just isn't any reason to think He's talking about some future generation.
No, you have to read "70 AD" into the text in order for it to be talking about 70 AD.
Jesus was returning within 7 years. Not 35 years. Not 2000 years.
SEVEN.
7.
And probably less than even that!
You're reading your beliefs into the text.
There were already Jews dispersed.
They were going to be GATHERED!
But it never happened!
The fig tree was barren, and Jesus said "I want to cut it down." But the Holy Spirit said "Let me dig around and fertilize it for a year, and if it bears fruit, well. But if it does not bear fruit, then cut it down.
That's exactly what happened!
Christ came for three years, searching for fruit, but found none, then one year after Pentecost, Israel was cut off, just as He said He would do!
You're reading what actually happened into the text, and not seeing what they were preparing for that never happened because of Israel's unbelief, and subsequent severance.
Saying it doesn't make it so.
I don't care how familiar you are with the text.
GO READ IT AGAIN!
It's all about Israel and her current status!
It tells us exactly what happened and why it happened! It tells us that what God said in Jeremiah was right, that when He says He will establish and make prosperous a nation, and if that nation rebels against Him, He will no longer do that which He said He was going to do!
It tells us that God promised Israel to make them into an everlasting kingdom, but that they rejected God, and currently have not attained righteousness! Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but rather by works of the law.
It tells us that Israel has rejected the gospel.
It tells us that while Israel has indeed fallen, God has not cast them away, that their rejection is not final!
It tells us that Israel was broken off that the Gentiles might be grafted in, but that if they do not continue in unbelief, God will graft them in again!
Paul calls them "enemies for your sake, concerning the gospel."
He says that even though they have been disobedient, they may also obtained mercy. God has committed them to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.
There's no reason to show mercy to a people who has not rejected God!
God cannot reward a rebellious people.
Israel has been cut off until a later time.
They were cut off after the stoning of Stephen.
That's when God turned to working with the Gentiles, and converted Paul on the road to Damascus, and showed Him the mystery that had been kept secret.
Everything that happened after that point in time was the natural flow of things, sans God's direct influence.
Israel was cut off, and God's promise to her (and to Abraham) was put on hold.
Meaning the destruction of the temple in 70 AD has absolutely nothing to do with any prophecy.
Meaning Israel being made a nation again in 1948 has absolutely nothing to do with any prophecy.
Meaning "this generation" died without seeing Christ's return.
Meaning John was not kept alive until Christ's return.
Meaning going through all the cities in Israel was no longer of utmost priority for the disciples, and they largely stayed within Jerusalem after Paul's conversion.
Clearly not!
It's not "putting on blinders."
It's called "rightly dividing the word of truth"!
That you think it's us putting blinders on tells me that you clearly do not understand what that means!
I find it fascinating that you keep ignoring it.
Jesus dealt with this false claim:
The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?” And He answered and said to them,
“Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.” They said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?” He said to them,
“Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery.” His disciples said to Him, “If such is the case of the man with his wife, it is better not to marry.” But He said to them,
“All cannot accept this saying, but only those to whom it has been given: For there are eunuchs who were born thus from their mother’s womb, and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He who is able to accept it, let him accept it.”
The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?” And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave...
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