Luke 17:20-30
20 And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
22 And he said unto the disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it.
23 And they shall say to you, See here; or, see there: go not after them, nor follow them.
24 For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day.
25 But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation.
26 And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.
27 They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.
28 Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they
builded;
29 But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.
30 Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.
In the above passage, please especially
note verse 22:
"And he said unto the disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it."
What did Jesus mean by these words? That the time would come
when the disciples would long for the "good old days" when Jesus
walked among them, but they would not see them again? That's what I used to
think, until I noticed that just four verses down in this passage, Jesus uses the
term "days of the son of man" to refer to his second coming,
not his first:
"And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man."
Whenever the meaning of an expression is defined by it's usage
in nearby verses, especially in the same discussion, it's best to use that
definition when interpreting it. To do otherwise is bad hermeneutics. Note, as
well, that the term "days of" is used in this passage to refer to
one's visible presence on earth:
26 And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.
28 Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they
builded;
This indicates that the term "days of the Son of
Man" refers to a time when Jesus will visibly return to Earth.
Someone might object, "What about the Kingdom coming
without observation in verse 20? Doesn't that indicate that Jesus will not
return visibly?" Not at all. Jesus answered the demands of the Pharisees by
pointing out that during the present time, the kingdom advances not by outward
physical force, but within the hearts of men. The word "cometh" in
verse 20 is in the present tense, indicating how the kingdom of God is CURRENTLY
advancing. However, He further clarifies to his disciples in verse 24, "For
as the lightning that lighteneth one part under heaven shineth unto the other
part under heaven, so shall also the Son of Man be in His day." The word
"be" here is in the future tense, indicating how the kingdom will come
at a future time. At that time it will be visible. If lightening lighting up the
whole sky doesn't indicate extreme visibility, I don't know what does. That's
how the Son of Man will be in His day. "Every eye shall see Him".
But wait a second! If "days of the Son of Man"
refers to the second coming, what was Jesus telling his disciples? That in
the future, they would not see even one of the days of the Son of Man! How
depressing that statement must have been to them! At least they were warned of
what to expect in advance by our Lord.
I can hear someone objecting, "Jesus meant that they
will not see one of the days of the son of man during those days."
But we must ask, "During those days of what?" Of
desiring to see one of the days of the Son of Man! Just how long do
you suppose those days of desiring to see the revealing of Christ lasted? Surely,
after Christ's ascension, the disciples longed to see Christ again for the rest
of their lives! We see evidence of this throughout the book of Acts and the
epistles. The disciples were constantly longing for the return of Christ, and
encouraging believers to be ready for it. Although Jesus had prepared the twelve
by saying, "ye shall not see it," the twelve still would have
encouraged Christians to be ready for His coming, since for all they knew, He
might return shortly after their deaths. And living in constant threat of death
as they did, they knew that they could depart this earth at any time.
The second
problem with the idea of Jesus implying, "ye shall not see it during
those days," is that he simply did not say it that way. He merely said, "ye
shall not see it." He added no qualifications. The words have such a force
and finality to them that it reminds me of the last verse of that old song by
Jimmy Webb, By the time I get to Phoenix:
By the time I make Oklahoma she'll be sleepin'
She'll turn softly and call my name out loud
And she'll cry just to think I'd really leave her
Tho' time and time I try to tell her so
She just didn't know I would really go.
Apparently, the singer really meant what he told
that poor woman. Jesus really meant what he is told his disciples, here, too.
The fact that Jesus plainly told the twelve, "Ye shall not see
it" ought to shake up full preterists, who believe that Jesus
returned in 70 AD. The apostle John was still alive in 70 AD, so if Jesus
returned then, John saw one of the days of the Son
of Man, and had his desire fulfilled.
But didn't Jesus tell his disciples that he
would
return within their lifetimes in Luke 9:23-28?
Luke 9: 23 And He said to them all, "If any man will
come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily, and follow
Me.
24 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever will lose his
life for My sake, the same shall save it.
25 For what is a man advantaged if he gain the whole world, and lose himself
or be cast away?
26 For whosoever shall be ashamed of Me and of My words, of him shall the Son
of Man be ashamed when He shall come in His own glory and in His Father's and
of the holy angels.
27 But I tell you in truth, there are some standing here that shall not taste
of death till they see the Kingdom of God."
28 And it came to pass about eight days after these sayings, He took Peter and
John and James, and went up onto a mountain to pray.
In verse 27, does seeing the Kingdom of God refer to seeing
Jesus coming in glory, mentioned in verse 26? Or does it refer to the mount of
transfiguration event? Bill Grimes has done an excellent job of answering this
question in his article, Matthew 16:28
- A Time Statement For What?, but I would like to
contribute an additional observation:
One of the keys to understanding how to group these verses
lies in the conjunctions which precede them. Notice that verses 24 - 26 begin
with "for," meaning that they go with the preceding verses. The idea
behind it is, "take up your cross and follow me, because if you try to gain
your life, you will lose it when I return and judge you." Verse 27,
however, begins with 'but I tell" (lego de), meaning that it stands in
contrast to the preceding verses.
Why would Jesus have begun verse 27 with the words "lego
de" (but I tell) if seeing the kingdom of God during the disciple's
lifetimes was synonymous with His second parousia? If that were the case, it
would have been much more logical for him to have begun that verse with 'for,'
as in the preceding verses. Rather, he contrasted it with the preceding verses.
As Bill has pointed out in the article referred to above, this idea is further
supported by the fact that the word parousia was used by the apostle
Peter to refer to the the first coming of Jesus. When Jesus walked the earth,
his disciples saw Him coming in power:
16 ¶ For we have not followed cunningly devised fables,
when we made known unto you the power and coming [parousia] of our Lord Jesus
Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
17 For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such
a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am
well pleased.
Peter associates this coming of the kingdom with power
primarily with the mount of transfiguration event, but it was not limited to
that:
Matthew 12:28 But if I cast out the demons by the Spirit of
God, then the kingdom of God has come on you.
Luke 10:9 And heal the sick in it, and say to them, The kingdom of God has
drawn near to you.
Luke 10:11 Even the dust clinging to us out of your city, we shake off against
you! Yet know this, that the kingdom of God has drawn near to you!
To learn more about this, please read Bill's article.
But didn't Jesus say "this generation
will not pass away
before all of these things take place" in Matthew 24:34?
Yes, but the question is, which generation was
Jesus referring to? The generation He was talking to, or the generation
He was talking about? There is very convincing linguistic evidence that Jesus was
referring to the generation he was talking about. For more information regarding
this, see the chapter entitled "What Does 'This Generation' Mean?" in A
Scriptural Critique of Full Preterism.
Conclusion
Jesus told his disciples that they would not see even one of the days
of the Son of Man. When Luke 9:27 and Matthew 24:34 are interpreted according to
sound grammatical and hermeneutic principles, we see that they do not contradict
this statement at all.
Rusty Entrekin
Copyright 2001, Marshall "Rusty" Entrekin" This
article may be reproduced and distributed freely, provided this copyright notice
remains intact and the contents remain complete and unaltered.