Could you tell me how Jesus could have made such a blatant mistake?

Question

Matt24:34

"Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled."
Meaning that the return of Christ and the end of the world are to take place during the lifetime of the disciples.
Which obviously didn´t.

Answer 1

Don't forget the promise that "whatever you ask God for in my name you shall receive."
Ooops.

(And it's NOT talking only of the destruction of Israel. It is talking about the end of the world. People only try to say that is was only referring to the destruction of Israel to excuse the fact that it DIDN'T HAPPEN.
Here's the quote: Matthew 29 (Jesus speaking)
"Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
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. " )
There's more before this quote, it actually starts before where I started quoting, and it all refers to the end of the world, NOT just the destruction of Israel.
People are going to take things out of context, try to re-interpret them, make them sound like he's talking in code, but the fact is it's pretty plainly said, and there's nothing to re-interpret, despite how desperately people want to make it seem like Jesus wasn't saying that the world will end before "this generation shall pass". It's a desperate attempt to re-interpret after the fact, to make quotes match up to what they want them to match up to. They do the same thing with any Biblical prophesy that didn't come true, and any thing that Jesus said that wasn't correct. Notice that the people trying to re-interpret don't even have the same re-interpretation. They can't even match their own stories up. It would be one thing if they ALL had the same interpretation, but what they come up with is a mish-mash of mixed up desperate attempts to excuse why the Bible was very plainly wrong here.

Answer 2

WHICH "blatant mistake"??? #1 - Revealing that he had "abnormal" powers, IF indeed he had them. #2 - Consorting with a "gang" of losers, cowards, and informants. #3 - NOT realizing that, when he prayed "Take This Cup From Me!", he was in a WORLD of trouble, on his own, and needed to "take steps". #4 - NOT coming down from that cross and retaliating in a MASSIVE manner after being beaten, tortured, and hung up, IF indeed he DID have that power. (Not exactly the kind of man that I would choose to be MY Savior.) #5 - NOT realizing, IF indeed he DID come "to save Mankind", that Mankind just was NOT worth it. #6 - By asserting that "He died for MY sins"... As far as I am aware, there were no Time Machines developed, neither then nor now, and, even given a Demon's longevity, there is absolutely NO way that I was around 2000+ years ago TO sin. Besides, I will die for MY OWN "sin", if ever required. #7 - By saying that the end of the world and the return of Christ will take place during the lifetime of those "disciples", Jesus showed that even though he was a fool to have made such a claim, the "disciples" were MUCH greater fools for believing him. Jesus was, no doubt, a well-meaning albeit confused, masochistic young Human with delusions of grandeur who was dealt a "Death Card" by a cruel, sadistic government. In that respect, in over 2000 years, not THAT much has changed.

Answer 3

Some things in Matthew 24 are in the near future after Jesus ministry . Some seem to be spread across large ranges of time - e.g. speaking of wars and rumorus of wars, kingdoms rising up and fighting each other - not something that could be regarded by Jesus of happening in a generation. Although he is talking to the disciples, I think you can sort of see from many of the sentences he is actually speaking to the Church of the future.

So it could be that the 'this generation' he's talking about in Matthew 24:34 is referring to the fig-tree image in Matthew 24:32. I've heard it talked that the fig tree in the Bible is actually a symbol of Israel - so the generation when Israel comes into leaf again will not pass away until the times of the gentiles are up, and the end is at the door - that could very reasonably be taken as 1948 ... which could actually mean we are extremely near to the end now (EEK) 1948+100(a likely max age of a Jew born in 1948) = 2048 => the tribulation will come before 2048?

Thats one interpretation, and quite possible; its a hard verse to understand.

Answer 4

You misterpreted the meaning of the scripture. Nowhere does it say that the "end of the world will take place during the lifetime of the disciples."

Keep studying though. Maybe you'll eventually find the scriptures that say that the truth is hidden from those who don't have the Holy Spirit living in them.

Study the entire Bible, not just one scripture. Would you do that if you were reading a novel? Would you open it up to a page in the middle of it and pick out a sentence, and expect people to explain the whole book to you, simply because you're too lazy to read it yourself?

Everyone is responsible for their own spiritual growth.

Answer 5

This is not what the Scripture which you quoted means. That's what happens when you are ignorant of the Bible and take verses completely out of context.
The previous verse gives you a strong and clear clue as to how to interpret this portion of Scripture. The generation which sees all of the events already mentioned begin to take place is the generation to which Jesus was referring. (Events related to the end of the age/world) The disciples asked more than 1 question and Jesus answered each one, one at a time.

Answer 6

Matthew 24 contains the Savior’s prophecies about the destruction of Jerusalem and about his Second Coming. Over time, the verses in this chapter have been changed and rearranged, making it sometimes difficult to understand which event a particular verse describes.

What were the two questions the disciples asked Jesus?
Matt 24
1 And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple.
2 And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.
3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?

1)....Tell us, when shall these things be? (destruction of the temple in Jerusalem)
answer to this is in Matthew 1:5-20
This was all fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem in AD70

2) and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?
answer to this is in Matthew 1:21-51
This is yet to be fulfilled and is what is referred to as all occurring in one generation. Yes, obviously the end of the world did not occur in 70AD and it was not intended to. It will occur when all the things happen as Christ said they would, just as the destruction of Jerusalem occurred, including the throwing down of the temple.

Answer 7

I've heard it explained that that indeed was the plan, but with the stoning of Stephen, God said enough's enough. He stopped this timeline and instigated a new one, based on Grace - as preached by Paul, primarily directed to the Gentiles (non-Jews). Once all have been told about the saving grace of Jesus, and His blood shed for them, the 2nd coming of Christ will take place.

Answer 8

That's one possible interpretation of the term generation. When you study the original language, another meaning becomes clear and that is "race". It is likely that he was talking about the Jewish people as a race not the lifespans of the disciples...perhaps he was trying to give them hope because he knew about the repeated efforts to eliminate that race (e.g., Hitler) that were coming in the future! It would NOT have been consistent with his other teachings for him to give them that kind of information about when he would return ("like a theif in the night" and "no man shall know the time"...but guaranteed within the next 30 years or so???).

Answer 9

What I can't figure out is how you are stumped by such a simple verse in such an understandable passage.

I know, you're just kidding around. Ha ha.
Poor ignorant fool, you should thank God for your every breath. You don't know how many more you have before you meet Him face to face.

Then I am sure He will clear up your foolishness.

Answer 10

Yes it is a big mistake if you look at it head on, but if you look at a biblical generation then we are comeing close to the end of that generation now. I personally dont believe in the bible, it didnt work for me but it has for others, so i go a differant path. What matters is how you see things and how good or bad of a person you are, all religions hold that in them some sense of morality. If you want to believe in this passage then just know that pretty soon will be the time when the generation "He" was refering to will pass.