The Apocalyptic Coming of Jesus

In Matthew 24:30 Jesus said he would come in the clouds, and all the tribe of the land (of Israel) would mourn. Men have taken this passage to indicate Jesus’ Second Coming to this earth. Jesus makes no such reference here in the Olivet Prophecy. He is speaking of his coming in judgment over the Jewish nation that had rejected him as their King. He used the Roman armies to carry out his judgment.

Some might conclude that, if this is so, it really doesn’t constitute a real coming or a judgment that could be termed his own. Nevertheless, this opinion is not Biblical. In Isaiah 10 God is speaking of coming to Jerusalem, but Assyria is the rod of his anger. God used the foreign nation to carry out his judgment upon Judah, and Assyria was the rod he used to do so in order to satisfy his anger. Jesus said the same thing, but used the Roman army to carry out his judgment against the Jewish nation.

In Matthew 10 Jesus told the disciples that, when they would be persecuted in one city, they should flee to another. Why? Because they would not have preached to all the cities of Israel until the Son of Man would come. He referred to his coming as an event that would take place when the Apostles would have preached the Gospel to every city of Israel! Was this his Second Coming to this earth? Of course not, but it is seen as his coming in judgment of a nation that rejected him at the outbreak of the Jewish War with Rome.

In Matthew 16 Jesus said some standing with him would not die until they saw the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom. Does this refer to Jesus’ Transfiguration as many assume? Why would Jesus imply some standing there wouldn’t die until the event took place? Certainly all did not **see** the Transfiguration, but Jesus implied that at his coming, some of those very disciples would be dead. That prediction would be true if the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple is seen as Jesus’ coming in glory—which the Scriptures tell us is true.

In the parable of the vineyard (Matthew 21) Jesus spoke of the husbandmen who killed the vineyard owner’s son. When he asked the Jewish leaders what the vineyard owner would do to the husbandmen, they said he would destroy those enemies and let out the vineyard to others, and in so doing they passed judgment on themselves ( Matthew 21:40-41, 45). The carrying out of the judgment in the parable was perceived as a coming of the vineyard owner. Moreover the Jewish leadership **knew** Jesus spoke of them—i.e. their generation, not a generation 2000 + years away.

In Luke 23, while Jesus was on the way to be crucified, he spoke with some women of Jerusalem who wept over what was happening to him. Notice:

But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children. For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck. Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us. (Luke 23:28-30 KJV)

Jesus told them – i.e. those women—that they should not weep for him, but the days would come when they—the children they held in their arms—would say to the rocks and hills “Fall on us, cover us!” Notice the similarity of words at the opening of the 6^th seal in Revelation 6:

And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand? (Revelation 6:12-17 KJV)

The cry of asking rocks and mountains to fall on them implies fear over the judgment of Jesus which was about to occur at his coming. This is apocalyptic language. The Jews in the 1^st century understood it as such, but many Christians would rather take it all literally, and since nothing like this was **ever** literally fulfilled, it must be for some time in our future. This eschatology doesn’t make sense and ignores the understanding of the audience to whom it was spoken.