2 - "This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled"

[Pete]

Matthew 24:32  Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer [is] nigh: 33  So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, [even] at the doors. 34  Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.

[Revamped 7-18-12]
If the above verse were as simple and clear cut, as the 17th century KJV seems to suggest to some, the church would have been preterist prior to the 20th century rather than understanding Revelation within the traditional continuous-historic context - through which Christians and Jews understand Old Testament prophecy and the reformers and the church understood New Testament prophecy - prior to the 20th century during which the Roman Catholic Jesuit anti-reformation inventions of futurism and preterism were popularized. Let alone that in the 20th century some folks recognized, that history had to be rewritten by changing the traditional dating of the book of Revelation, to accommodate Jesuit Luis Alcazar's invention.
But scripture wasn't written in 17th century English.....

Matthew 24:34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.

.....but in 1st century Koine Greek. So let's check Strong's to see if we can get a sense of the verse, and how modern day preterists could be so right and the church could have been so wrong for over 1900 years:

This
New Testament Greek Definition:
3778 houtos {hoo'-tos} including nominative masculine plural
houtoi {hoo'-toy}, nominative feminine singular haute {how'-tay}
and nominative feminine plural hautai {how'-tahee}
from the article 3588 and 846;; pron
AV - this 157, these 59, he 31, the same 28, this man 25, she 12,
they 10, misc 34; 356
1) this, these, etc.

till
New Testament Greek Definition:
302 an {an}
a primary particle;; particle
AV - whosoever 35, whatsoever 7, whomsoever 5, whereinsoever 1,
what things soever 1, whatsoever + 3745 7, an many as + 3745 4,
whosoever + 3745 2, what things so ever + 3745 1,
wherewith soever + 3745 1, whithersoever + 3699 4,
wheresoever + 3699 2, whatsoever + 3748 5, whosoever + 3748 3,
whose soever + 5100 2, not tr 111; 191
1) has no exact English equivalent, see definitions under AV

Next let's try a Greek/English interlinear:

(Greek/English Interlinear (tr) NT) Matthew 24:34 amhn <281> {VERILY} legw <3004> (5719) {I SAY} umin <5213> {TO YOU,} ou <3756> mh <3361> {IN NO WISE} parelqh <3928> (5632) h <3588> {WILL HAVE PASSED AWAY} genea <1074> auth <3778> {THIS GENERATION} ewV <2193> an <302> {UNTIL} panta <3956> {ALL} tauta <5023> {THESE THINGS} genhtai <1096> (5638) {SHALL HAVE TAKEN PLACE.}

Now let's see how the verse might be understood:

Matthew 24:34  Verily I say unto you, {the same} generation shall not pass, {whereinsoever all these things shall have taken place.}

Like, for instance, "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled", which didn't occur until 1967 when Jews regained sovereignty over Jerusalem thereby ending gentile control for the first time in over 2500 years, just as prophesied by Daniel and confirmed mathematically in two parallel problems that span 2500 years.
http://www.islamchristianforum.com/index.php?topic=77.0

No surprise then that when we obediently.....

Job 8:8 For enquire, I pray thee, of the former age, and prepare thyself to the search of their fathers:  9  (For we [are but of] yesterday, and know nothing, because our days upon earth [are] a shadow:)

.....we find these great men of God that forged the reformation wrote:

Thieleman van Braght: 'a thousand two hundred and threescore days, which reckoned according to prophetic language means as many years… let it be reckoned as it may, say we, as a very long period of time.' 

Matthew Henry:  "….if the beginning of that interval could be ascertained, this number of prophetic days, taking a day for a year, would give us a prospect of when the end might be."

Isaac Newton - "She is nourished by the merchants of the earth, three times or years and an half, or 42 months, or 1260 days: and in these Prophecies days are put for years."

Jamison, Faucett & Brown commentary - "..... in the wilderness 'a thousand two hundred and threescore days.' In the wider sense, we may either adopt the year-day theory of 1260 years..."

The absence of historical record regarding the Second Coming of Christ, along with the historical matter of fact of the restoration of Jews to their land in fulfillment of so much bible prophecy, throws preterism right out the window. Let alone as we witness prophecy being fulfilled in THE false prophet Muhammad's Islamic kingdom "beast" assuming its prophetic role as the final foe of God's people.
http://www.islamchristianforum.com/index.php?topic=12.0

Some modern preterists might take a que from Isaac Newton:

“Hence I observe these things, first that the restauration of the Jewish nation so much spoken of by the old Prophets respects not the few Jews who were converted in the Apostles days, but the dispersed nation of the unbelieving Jews to be converted in the end when the fullness of the Gentiles shall enter, that is when the Gospel (upon the fall of Babylon) shall begin to be preached to all nations. Secondly that the prophecies of Isaiah described above by being here cited by the Apostle is limited to respect the time of the future conversion and restitution of the Jewish Nation, and thirdly that the humour which has long reigned among the Christians of boasting our selves against the Jews, and insulting over them for their not believing, is reprehended by the Apostle for high –mindedness and self-conceipt, and much more is our using them despightfully, Pharisaicall and impious”

Some possible passages Newton may have been referring to:

Leviticus 26:44-45 Here scripture tells us the restoration of Israel is unconditional.
Isaiah 11:11 Here again scripture talks about a second restoration of the Jews. What would be the point of this if they were not part of the elect.
Isaiah 26;20-27:1 Talks of hiding the children of Israel followed by Satan's complete judgment. There again why hide them if not to save the elect.
Isaiah 27:12-13 talks about the final regathering of Israel.
Jeremiah:30:4-8 talks about the time of Jacobs troubles and the future restoration.
Jeremiah 30:18-24 Tell's us that a restoration for the tents of Jacob will take place in the latter days, I don't believe that this is the first restoration of 536 B.C.
Jeremiah 31:35-37 Talks about the permanent nation of Israel.
Jeremiah 33:24-26 Talks about the unconditional covenant with Jacob's descendants.
Ezekiel 16:60-63 Here again it's talking about an unconditional everlasting covenant with the Jews.
Ezekiel 37:1-28 Again it's talking about the unconditional future restoration of Israel followed closely by Armageddon in Ezekiel: 38-38.
Hosea 11:9-10 It talks about the future restoration of Israel from the West.
Joel 3:1-3 Predicts the restoration of Juda followed by Armageddon.
Amos 9:11 -15 Talks about an Israel restored to the land.
Zechariah 8:7-8 Speaks of a post-exilic unconditional restoration of the Jews to Jerusalem and the land.
Zechariah 10 & 12 Here again are more prophecies of the future restoration of the Jews.
Zechariah 14 Talks of Armageddon with the Jews in Jerusalem.

In 1635, Brightman wrote  a commentary on Daniel 11-12 which he sub-titled, 'The restoring of the Jewes and their callinge to the faith of Christ after the utter overthrow of their three enemies is set forth in livelie colours.'

In 1641, the British Puritan leader, Oliver Cromwell stated, "And it may be, as some think, God will bring the Jews home to their station, 'from all the isles of the sea,' and answer their expectations 'as from the depths of the sea.'

In 1649 the English Puritans, Ebenezer and Joanna Cartwright,  living in Amsterdam, petitioned the British Government to  lift the ban on Jews settling in England, and to assist them to move to Palestine:

Please see the Christian Zionism section for much more:
http://www.islamchristianforum.com/index.php?board=73.0

[Peter]

Regarding the use of the term "generation" in, for example:
Mark 9:19 He answereth him, and saith, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him unto me.

Mat 16:4 A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed.

Mat 12:34 O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.

generation
New Testament Greek Definition:
1074 genea {ghen-eh-ah'}
from (a presumed derivative of) 1085; TDNT - 1:662,114; n f
AV - generation 37, time 2, age 2, nation 1; 42
1) fathered, birth, nativity
2) that which has been begotten, men of the same stock, a family
2a) the several ranks of natural descent, the successive
members of a genealogy
2b) metaph. a group of men very like each other in endowments,
pursuits, character
2b1) esp. in a bad sense, a perverse nation
3) the whole multitude of men living at the same time
4) an age (i.e. the time ordinarily occupied be each successive
generation), a space of 30 - 33 years

A generation is also used metaphorically to describe a group of men that have similar characteristics.

Now if we consider it to be a literal ENTIRE generation it would suggest that ALL of those in a specific genealogical generation were guilty. Are we to believe there were no regenerate Jews among the Pharisees?  Even the context shows that the transgressions certainly weren't restricted to that particular genealogical generation. Does God condemn men because of a happenstance of what generation they were born into?

Perhaps this is the germ of doctrines of generalization held by skinheads, KKK, and Hitler.


In any event we can see by the ambiguous nature of the terms, that building an entire context in an inverted pyramid of pile-on presumption, rooted in a few words, is not then proven by those ambiguous words.
Should a doctrine be built around the turn of a word or two to begin with?

But then Jesuit Alcazar INVENTED preterism in a 16th century anti-reformation effort to divert mounting claims that the papacy or Catholic Church was the great whore, so it wasn't an honest effort to begin with. The reformers didn't buy it.

It should come as no surprise then, that rewriting history is required to validate it.
http://islamchristianforum.com/index.php?topic=41.0