Is this an example of failed bible prophecy?

Question

Matthew 24:34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.

Jesus states that all the signs marking the end of the world in Matthew 24 would be fulfilled before his generation ended. That generation ended 2000 years ago, and the world has not come to an end, neither has all those signs been fulfilled

Let me guess "out of Context" or "we can never know God's ways"

my prophecy has been fulfilled someone said I took it out of context, now thats God power right there!

Answer 1

Some other failed prophecies:

Isaiah 17:1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.

Damascus is still inhabited today with over a million people, and hardly a ruinous heap.

Isaiah 19:4-5 And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce king shall rule over them, saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts. And the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and dried up.

The river mentioned here is the Nile. The Nile is still one of Egypt's greatest natural resource.

Isaiah 19:18 In that day shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan, and swear to the LORD of hosts; one shall be called, The city of destruction.

The Canaanite language has never been spoken in Egypt, and is now an extinct language.

Ezekiel 29:10-11 Behold, therefore I am against thee, and against thy rivers, and I will make the land of Egypt utterly waste and desolate, from the tower of Syene even unto the border of Ethiopia. No foot of man shall pass through it, nor foot of beast shall pass through it, neither shall it be inhabited forty years.

Never in its long history has Egypt ever been uninhabited for forty years

Answer 2

Matt 24:34 simply says that the generation being born when the sign fulfillment begins would still be alive at the Lord's return. We've just assumed that meant all the signs would be fulfilled within 40 years or so. The dictionary also defines a generation as a group of individuals born and living at about the same time and this may be the most appropriate definition to use in interpreting Matt 24:34.

The verse doesn't say that no subsequent generations would be born, nor does it say that all the signs would be fulfilled before the birth of the next generation, but rather within the lifetimes of those who are born about the time the fulfillment begins.

Answer 3

Wrong context (again)

Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place: What generation does Jesus mean?

i. It cannot be the generation of the disciples, because they never saw Jesus return in glory as described in Matthew 24:30. It is undoubtedly the generation that sees these signs. These events and Jesus’ return won’t be on some 1,000-year timetable, but will happen in succession.

d. Up to this point, Jesus has given an important outline for end-times events.

There will arise catastrophes and persecutions, but those in themselves are not the sign of the end.
There will arise a pivotal sign: the abomination of desolation.
When the abomination of desolation appears, there are warnings to Israel to flee after the abomination.
On the heels of the abomination of desolation comes great tribulation, and cosmic disturbances.
In culmination, Jesus Christ will return in glory to the earth.


Gothca

Answer 4

You presume that human understanding of ancient History is 100% accurate. Apart from this assumption you mistake divinely inspired Prophecy for crystal ball predictions which it is not. The purpose of Prophecy is to bring the people back to God ; when you tell a child "if you don't clean up your room you will be punished !" you are essentially making a prophecy of what will happen to that child but if the child heeds the warning and complies (even imperfectly) to your instructions or if he gets sick or hurts himself and is confined to bed and is thus spared from the punishment, does that make you a false prophet ? Understanding Prophecy is as difficult as understanding History ; the twin towers attacks of 911 had been prophesied by Christina Gallagher and Vassula Ryden before hand ; when it occurred, all kinds of theories regarding what happened were proposed except the possibility that as a result of unrepented sins we had deprived ourselves from God's Protection... Sometimes the box is bigger than it seems.

Answer 5

Some say that you are not interpretting the passage correctly.

Ok, what is the correct interpretation. Also, if the bible is the word of a god and that god can make anything possible, then why can the guy not write a book that everyone can understand? If there are so many different ways to interpret the passages then that means that the bible was poorly written. Not something you would expect from an all-powerful being.

Answer 6

The term translated "generation" doesn't necessarily mean a 40 year span. There are times where a generation can mean 100 years, as in the case of Israel living in Egypt for four generations. (They were there 430 years.)

Generation can also mean "nation." The Greek word translated in Matthew 24:34 is the word "genea," (Pronounced ghen-eh-ah') and is Strong's Reference # 1074. It is from (a presumed derivative of) Strong's Reference #1085; a generation; by implication, an age (the period or the persons). In most Bibles, this word is translated into English as age, generation, nation, or time.

Answer 7

Yep. It says the exact same thing several other places as well:

Mark 9:1 And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power.

Luke 9:27 But I tell you of a truth, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God.

Mark 13:30 Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done.

Mark 14:62 And Jesus said, I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.

Matthew 16:28 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 23:36 Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.

Answer 8

Jesus is speaking to the disciples about the future. Read the scriptures before....Jesus said
v.29 Immediately, AFTER THE TRIBULATION OF THOSE DAYS, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not shed its light, and the stars will fall from the sky and the powers of the heavens SHALL BE shaken...." The generation living at that time shall not pass until all these things be fulfilled...you have to get your stuff straight if you are gonna attack the Word of God..

Answer 9

"This generation" refers to the generation that begins to see the signs of the end of the age, and all signs will be fulfilled before that generation passes away. Read Revelation for full text of the signs of the end of the age.

Zen Pirate- the problem with your prophecies is that they all coencide with the tribulation of judgement period. This hasn't happened yet, so how could the prophecies be fulfilled yet?

Answer 10

The prophecy is an example of one yet to be fulfilled.
The "generation" it refers to is one of tow things:
1)Verse 32 refers to Israel being back in their land; the land growing and blossoming...
The generation that sees that happen is the generation that will not pass. Since Israel has only been in their land again since May of 1948, then our current US Baby-Boomers are the generation that is spoken of.
or
2) Generation is used to describe the process of going from one generation to another, as a society generates itself.

So, either the Baby-Boomers will be around for the end, OR Israel will not cease to be a nation until the end comes, in which case, the world itself will also cease to exist as we know it. .