Misunderstandings of the prophecies of the Bible have caused erroneous teachings through the years. The one major error is not allowing the Bible message to speak to the reader through identifying who is speaking, the reason for the message and the recipients of the message. The Old Testament part of the Bible is a book of history that was written to the mid-eastern peoples who received the message of God as he prepared them to bring Jesus into the world. It is important to understand that the United States did not exist at that time and wouldn’t for more than 1700 years. Just as the Old Testament was written to the people prior to Christ, Jesus lived and spoke his message to the people of that day, the ones who would be charged with the responsibility of spreading the gospel to all the nations (people-Jew and Gentile), beginning with Jerusalem and extending to all parts of the world after A.D. 70.

The world of that day was the Roman Empire and the people who lived in it. It was a far-flung empire, but never the less, that was all the people of that day knew. The major center of the populated world was that area and when the message of the Bible is understood, it is apparent that the Jesus was speaking to the people of that day about current events and the future events that would occur during the lifetime of many of them. Read the following verse carefully and keep it in mind as you read the series parts that follow: Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom. (Matthew 16:28; Confer with Mark 9:1 and Luke 9:27) The ones to whom Jesus spoke would see the events that he described in the gospel books as the Son of man coming in his kingdom  and which will be explained in future lessons. It is folly to think that he was talking to people many years in the future. That makes no sense now and it certainly wouldn’t have made any sense to those who heard his message at that time. It is important to keep in mind that words have meaning, and whatever those Greek and Hebrew words meant in those days to the people who heard them, the same meaning must be determined today as we study the greatest book on earth.  

Beginning with the appearance of Jesus on the earth, and ever since he ascended into heaven, the title of the lessons you are going to read has been asked by millions of people. The answers are many and varied and many of them are false due to a misunderstanding of the divisions of the Bible.

While it may be redundant to state it, the Bible consists of two parts, the Old Testament and the New Testament. The gospels are considered a part of the New Testament but in reality they consist of the Old Age of the Law and the New Covenant Age to come in that they are a history of the time Jesus spent on the earth. Of the utmost importance in understanding the message of the scriptures pertaining to his work, is the necessity to know to whom he spoke and the meaning that he imparted to those who wanted to know when he would return. A failure to understand whom the recipients of his words were, and why, have lead to the errors in the discourses about his return to the earth called his second coming or Second Advent.

The errors begin with not dividing the Bible into the separate discourses to Jews and Gentiles or the Old and New, and the false doctrines that have crept into the Bible message by failing to make those divisions. One of the errors begins with the wrong interpretation of Daniel Chapter 8:26-27 And the vision of the evening and the morning which was told is true: wherefore shut thou up the vision; for it shall be for many days. 27  And I Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days; afterward I rose up, and did the king's business; and I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it.

 Daniel was told to shut up the vision to preserve it: to keep it secure for further use. It would be in some remote time distant that the events would occur, but he didn’t know the time or year.  What he saw made him sick and the Hebrew words indicate he didn’t understand what he saw, but it was so terrible he fainted. What he saw was the end of the Jewish age when the temple and Jerusalem would be destroyed and after Jesus entered the world, he spoke to what Daniel saw in his vision. Daniel didn’t know the year, but historical record tells us it was A.D. 70. Evidence will be presented, as the lessons progress, to show that the scriptures reveal a fulfilled prophecy and it is that of which Jesus spoke.

The vision Daniel received was a prophecy; the word means some event (or message not yet spoken) not yet having occurred and which will occur at some time in the future. In other words, Daniel had knowledge of what was going to happen, but he didn’t know when it would happen. Many expositors teach that Daniel’s vision refers to the second advent of Christ at the end of the Messianic or church age in which we live. That is wrong because that not only ignores all of the events of which Jesus spoke in Matthew Chapter 24, but it ignores the people to whom Jesus spoke. He was speaking to the people of that day. He had no reason to speak to us since Jesus came to the Jews; He came unto his own, and his own received him not. (I John 1:11) That fact is one of the elements in Daniel’s vision that let him see what God was going to do to the Jews for rejecting his Son and the salvation he freely offered to everyone. To make the Daniel’s vision otherwise is to wipe out nearly 500 years of history of the prophecy foretelling the coming Christ.

Revelation is connected to Daniel but not in the manner so many teach. Revelation is the Old Testament Daniel revealed while Daniel is the New Testament concealed. Revelation reveals what Daniel saw and it tells the events of the persecution of God’s people (assembly/church) that will transpire in Jerusalem and the Roman Empire: not what will happen futuristically during the Second (final) Coming of Christ. Daniel shut up the vision (Daniel 12:1-13) of the destruction of Jerusalem that John reveals will soon to take place. The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John: (Revelation 1:1) Notice that the things John saw must shortly come to pass; not thousands of years later since it is plain it was for the people of that time: to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass. That being true, Revelation does not reveal events that many believe are yet to occur. They occurred shortly after Revelation was written. It is important to understand that fact because when Revelation is understood, it destroys the false teaching done regarding Matthew 24 and the false teaching link of the two.

The Revelation was written in apocalyptic language, which was the style of the day for the Jews, and helped hide the message from the persecutors. The events depicted happened, but they were described symbolically to disguise actual places, persons and events in order to conceal the truth from the Roman officials.

With the foregoing as the background, the next lesson will begin with Matthew and the chapters related to the teaching of Jesus that foretold of the Tribulation. As that article unfolds, think of the words this and this generation that Jesus used in his discourse. When those words are kept in perspective, the mystery is solved and the false teachings will prove to be just that, false.

© 12-08-2009 DEC

                The next lesson will begin with Matthew Chapter 23