A Question For Torah Keeping Messianics

[gbausc]

Shlama Brother,

You have presented opinion. I have presented fact. And I here present more fact:

Please indulge me the printing of a long passage of scripture from Matthew 24-

1 And Jesus passed out of the temple to go away: and his disciples came to him, showing him the structure of the temple.
2 And he said to them: See you not all these? Verily I say to you, There will not be left here a stone upon a stone, that is not demolished.
3 And as Jesus sat on the mount of Olives, his disciples came, and said between themselves and him: Tell us when these things are to be; and what will be the sign of thy coming, and of the consummation of the world.
4 Jesus answered and said to them: Take heed, that no one deceive you.
5 For many will come in my name, and will say, I am the Messiah: and they will deceive many.
6 And you are to hear of conflicts, and the rumor of battles. See that you be not disquieted: for all these things must come; but the consummation is not yet.
7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there will be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places.
8 But all these are only the commencement of sorrows.
9 And they will deliver you up to tribulation, and will kill you: and you will be hated by all nations, on account of my name.
10 Then many will be stumbled: and they will hate one another, and will betray one another.
11 And many false prophets will rise up; and they will deceive many.
12 And on account of the abounding of iniquity, the love of many will decline.
13 But he that shall persevere to the end, will have life.
14 And this announcement of the kingdom shall be published in all the world, for a testimony to all nations: and then will come the consummation.
15 And when you see the abominable sign of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place; then let the reader consider;
16 and then let them who are in Judaea, flee to the mountain:
17 and let him who is on the roof, not come down to take what is in his house:
18 and let him who is in the field, not return back to take his clothing.
19 But woe to those with child, and to them that are nursing, in those days.
20 And pray you, that your flight be not in winter, or on the sabbath.
21 For there will then be great distress, such as hath not been from the commencement of the world, until now, and will not be.
22 And unless those days should be cut short, no flesh would remain alive. But, for the elect???s sake, those days will be cut short.
23 Then, if any one shall say to you, Lo, the Messiah is here, or is there; give no credence.
24 For there will arise false Messiahs, and mendacious prophets; who will exhibit great signs, so as to deceive, if possible, even the elect.
25 Behold, I have told you beforehand.
26 If therefore they say to you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not out: or, Behold, he is in a secret chamber; give no credence.
27 As the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth unto the west, so will be the coming of the Son of man.
28 And wherever the carcass may be, there will the eagles be congregated.
29 And immediately after the distress of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not show her light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be agitated.
30 And then will be seen the signal of the Son of man in heaven: and then will all the tribes of the earth mourn, when they see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.
31 And he will send his angels with a great trumpet and they will collect together his elect from the four winds, from one extremity of heaven to the other.
32 And learn you an illustration from the fig-tree. As soon as its branches become tender and its leaves shoot forth, you know that summer is coming on.
33 So also you, when you perceive all these things, know you, that he is nigh, even at the door.
34 Verily I say to you, That this generation shall not pass away, till all these things shall be.
35 Heaven and earth will pass away; but my words shall not pass away.
36 But of that day and of that hour, knoweth no man, nor even the angels of heaven, but the Father only.
37 And as the days of Noah, so will the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For as, before the flood, they were eating and drinking, taking wives and giving to husbands, up to the day that Noah entered the ark,
39 and knew not, until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of man be.
40 Then will two men be in the field; the one will be taken, and the other left.
41 Two women will be grinding at the mill; the one taken, and the other left.
42 Watch, therefore, since you know not at what hour your Lord cometh.
43 But know this, that if the lord of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have been awake, and would not have suffered his house to be broken into.
44 Therefore, be you also ready; for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of man will come.
45 Who then, is that faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath placed over his domestics, to give them their food in its time?
46 Happy is that servant, whom, when his lord shall come, he will find so doing.
47 Verily I say to you, He will place him over all that he hath.
48 But if that servant, being wicked, shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;
49 and shall begin to beat his fellow-servants, and shall be eating and drinking with drunkards;
50 the lord of that servant will come in a day he will not expect, and in an hour he knoweth not,
51 and will cut him asunder, and will assign him his portion with the hypocrites; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Jesus was speaking to His disciples and to them alone. They were the ones who had asked Him when the destruction of the temple would occur, and what the signs of His coming would be, and of the end of the world.
The personal pronoun???You??? occurs 25 times in the passage.

Yeshua told the disciples, ???when you see these things, know that it is near.???
He was not talking to the nation of Israel 2000 years hence;
he was not talking to dispensationalist Evangelicals 1900 years hence;
our Savior was talking to His 12 disciples in Jerusalem in AD 30, and he said that they would see ???all these things??? happen in that generation. That answers the question, ???When shall these things happen????

If Sharbatha meant ???race??? , then He told them nothing about ???when???; in fact, He would have utterly subverted their minds by such a reference, practically telling them that of all the things He predicted, none may happen in their generation, nor in any other generation, for Israel (???Sharbatha??? = ???Israel??? according to this theory) would never pass away, ever, according to Jeremiah 31, and therefore , ???Israel will not pass away until all these things come to pass??? means nothing at all, for Israel will never pass away.

But, of course, the above is only a desperate attempt to buttress a ridiculous eschatology. It is not the result of serious exegesis (???bringing out???) of the written word, either Greek or Aramaic; it is rather an eisegesis (???bringing into???) the text what the interpreter wants it to say.

The above passage is essentially repeated in Mark 13 and Luke 21. The Greek mss. all use the word ???genea??? ??????generation??? to translate ???Sharbatha??? in all three passages. The mouth of 2 or 3 witnesses should settle the matter. ???Genea??? can mean ???race???; it usually means ???generation??? in the sense of the multitude of people living at the same time.
SInce Yeshua spoke exclusively to His disciples and said to them: "You shall see all these things come to pass...", it is clear that the fulfillment would occur in their lifetime.

The sum total of the above considerations precludes the ???race??? interpretation.

Our Lord was speaking to His disciples and told them they would see His return.

Unbelief is no argument.

Peace & Blessings
Dave