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SUBJECT:
Matthew 10:23
The verse: Matthew 10:23
But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into
another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone
over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.
QUESTION: Is this verse stating that Christ would
return in the disciples lifetime and that His second coming
has already come and gone?
ANSWER:
No, it does not. The second coming of Christ has not yet
taken place for a massive number of reasons.
From time to time we experience individuals coming forward
attempting to do away with God, Christ and/or the Word of
God by claiming [concluding]
that the end time has already taken place and Christ
returned some two-thousand years ago. They attempt to
establish this with a selected verse or two while clearly
ignoring and/or being ignorant of the rest of the Bible.
The Bible is abundantly clear that Christ will return to
rule the world for 1,000 years. This is to be quickly
followed by the Second Resurrection of everyone who ever
lived. We are talking about billions of people. They will,
at that time, have their opportunity in the Salvation
Process and reap eternal life in the Kingdom of God. At the
end of this approximately one-hundred-year period, there
will no longer be human beings. All who have successfully
gone through the Salvation Process will be made spirit
beings with eternal life.
Clearly this has not happened.
If Christ had His second coming two-thousand years ago:
1] Where is the historical record of this reign?
2] Why are there still humans on the earth?
3] Why, after ruling all nations with a rod of iron, would
He allow the nations to go back to that which He came to
end, namely wars, killing, pestilence, famine, earthquakes,
crime, death, people speaking multiple languages and living
in a world full of food, water, land and air pollution?
This would be absurd. People with this belief never come
forward to answer any of these questions. This is not their
mission or goal. They simply wish to discredit the Word of
God and make Christ go away quietly. The question is
rarely, if ever, asked by someone innocently wishing to know
an answer. They are attempting always to debate, debase and
argue their own beliefs that God does not exist or that He
and Christ have died or otherwise gone off into the Universe
never to return.
Let us take a look at the meaning of the verses in question:
Matthew 10:18
And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my
sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles.
Matthew 10:19
But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye
shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour
what ye shall speak.
Matthew 10:20
For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father
which speaketh in you.
Matthew 10:21
And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and
the father the child: and the children shall rise up against
their parents, and cause them to be put to death.
Matthew 10:22
And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he
that endureth to the end shall be saved.
Matthew 10:23
But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into
another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone
over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.
Matthew 10:24
The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above
his lord.
The key verse, the detractor states, is verse 23, which they
feel is stating that the disciples will be engaged in a work
not yet completed by the time Christ returns. They imply
that the text is clear and that it is directed to disciples
alive two-thousand years ago. Therefore Christ must have
returned in their lifetimes.
Notice what the commentaries say as to the meaning of the
text.
Dr.
Lightfoot supposes the meaning to be: "Ye shall not have
travelled over the cities of Israel, preaching the Gospel,
before the Son of man is revealed by his resurrection,
Romans 1:4; compare Acts 3:19,20; 5:26. To you first, God,
raising up his Son, sent him to bless you, &c. The epoch of
the Messiah is dated from the resurrection of Christ."
After all, the place may be understood literally; for telein
tav poleiv, to finish the cities, is only a concise mode of
speech, for telein odon dia tav poleiv, to complete the
journey through the cities. To finish the survey, to preach
in every one:-till the Son of man be come, may refer either
to the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, or
to the subversion of the Jewish state.
~Adam Clark commentary
Here is another:
Till the Son of man be come. There is a wonderful variety of
interpreters' senses of this text, founded upon the various
comings of Christ mentioned in holy writ. He was already
come in the flesh, so as it, speaking of a time to come,
could not be meant of that: nor can it be understood of his
second coming to judgment, for they have gone through the
cities of Israel long ago. Christ is therefore said in
Scripture to come, when he appeareth in some great work of
providence, whether of judgment or mercy. This makes some
interpret it of the destruction of Jerusalem; in which sense
some think the coming of Christ is mentioned, Matthew
24:1-51. Some, of the resurrection of Christ, from whence
they say Christ's epocha commenced. Others understand it of
the effusion of the Spirit in the day of Pentecost; this
they ground on John 14:17,18, where they think Christ's
coming, promised John 14:18, is the coming of the Spirit,
promised John 14:17. Undoubtedly, in the general, our
Saviour means, till the time be accomplished when you must
leave preaching to the Jews and go to the Gentiles, and my
kingdom shall be further extended than it is at present;
which dispensation of God may for aught I know be called the
coming of Christ, being an eminent act of God's providence,
by which Christ was more showed to the world, and his
kingdom further extended.
~Matthew Poole commentary
Here is another:
Till the Son of man is come. A reference primarily, no
doubt, to the Lord coming into his kingdom. See Matthew
16:28. He was thus to come in the life time of some of the
apostles. He did thus come in the establishment of his
kingdom in power on the day of Pentecost. He also came in
judgment on the Jews at the destruction of Jerusalem. This
event ended Jewish persecution. There is also the final
coming to judge the world, but the meaning here does not
include that.
~People’s New Testament
commentary
Notice the Barnes Notes commentary:
ye shall not have gone over the
cities of Israel, or "finished" them; that is,
their tour through them, and their ministry, or the
preaching of the Gospel in them,
till the son of man be come;
which is not to be understood of his second coming to
judgment, but either of his resurrection from the dead, when
he was declared to be the Son of God, and when his
glorification began; or of the pouring forth of the Spirit
at the day of Pentecost, when his kingdom began more visibly
to take place, and he was made, or manifested to be the Lord
and Christ; or of his coming to take vengeance on his
enemies, that would not have him to rule over them, and the
persecutors of his ministers, at the destruction of
Jerusalem. ~John Gill Commentary
Ye shall not have gone over
the cities of Israel ... - That is, in fleeing
from persecutors from one city to another, you shall not
have gone to every city in Judea until the end of the Jewish
economy shall occur. See the notes at Matthew_24:28-30. By
“the coming of the Son of Man,” that is, of “Christ,” is
probably meant the destruction of Jerusalem, which happened
about thirty years after this was spoken. The words are
often used in this sense. See Matthew_24:30; Mark_13:26;
Luke_21:27, Luke_21:32.
~Barnes Notes
We see that the verse is not talking about the second coming
of Christ.
Let us take a look at the four referenced scriptures of the
Barnes commentary:
Matthew 24:30
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.
Mark 13:26
And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds
with great power and glory.
Luke 21:27
And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud
with power and great glory.
Luke 21:32
Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away,
till all be fulfilled.
Notice the commentary on Luke 21:32:
Luke 21:7-36
The
account of the destruction of Jerusalem contained in this
chapter has been fully considered in the notes at Matt. 24.
All that will be necessary here will be an explanation of a
few words that did not occur in that chapter.
Notice the commentary on Matthew 24:2 referenced here:
Matthew 24:2
There
shall not be left here one stone upon another - At the time
this was spoken, no event was more improbable than this. The
temple was vast, rich, splendid. It was the pride of the
nation, and the nation was at peace. Yet in the short space
of 40 years all this was accomplished exactly. Jerusalem was
taken by the Roman armies, under the command of Titus, 70
a.d. The account of the siege and destruction of the city is
left us by Josephus, a historian of undoubted veracity and
singular fidelity. He was a Jewish priest. In the wars of
which he gives an account, he fell into the hands of the
Romans, and remained with them during the siege and
destruction of the city. Being a Jew, he would of course say
nothing designed to confirm the prophecies of Jesus Christ;
yet his whole history appears almost like a running
commentary on these predictions respecting the destruction
of the temple. The following particulars are given on his
authority:
After the city was taken, Josephus says that Titus “gave
orders that they should now “demolish the whole city and
temple,” except three towers, which he reserved standing.
But for the rest of the wall, it was laid so completely even
with the ground by those who “dug it up from the
foundation,” that there was nothing left to make those
believe who came hither that it had ever been inhabited.”
Maimonides, a Jewish writer, has also recorded that
“Terentius Rufus, an officer in the army of Titus, with a
plowshare tore up the foundations of the temple, that the
prophecy might be fulfilled, ‘Zion shall be plowed as a
field,’” Mic_3:12. This was all done by the direction of
divine Providence. Titus was desirous of preserving the
temple, and frequently sent Josephus to the Jews to induce
them to surrender and save the temple and city. But the
prediction of the Saviour had gone forth, and,
notwithstanding the wish of the Roman general, the temple
was to be destroyed. The Jews themselves first set fire to
the porticoes of the temple. One of the Roman soldiers,
without any command, threw a burning firebrand into the
golden window, and soon the temple was in flames. Titus gave
orders to extinguish the fire; but, amid the tumult, none of
the orders were obeyed. The soldiers pressed to the temple,
and neither fear nor entreaties, nor stripes could restrain
them. Their hatred of the Jews urged them on to the work of
destruction, and thus, says Josephus, the temple was burned
against the will of Caesar. - Jewish Wars, b. 6 chapter 4,
section 5-7. ~Barnes Notes
As a partial fulfillment of the destruction of the
temple, we have the above historical reference by Josephus.
This was but a type of the destruction to come to a yet
third temple in the end time.
How do we know this was a type and that an additional
destruction will take place? First, if the prophesied
destruction took place in 70 AD, with none more to follow,
then where is the historical record of the return of Christ
and Him ruling all nations under one religion and one
language for one thousand years? It has not taken place.
Second, we have the book of Revelation written after the 70
AD destruction [92-101 AD]
and John is still looking for the return of Christ. He has
clearly not yet returned.
Frankly speaking, the detractors have no concept of the type
of the temple destruction in 70 AD. They only see the
historical record from 70 AD and declare that Christ must
have already returned. Where He supposedly went after His
one-thousand-year reign apparently remains a mystery.
Commentaries have one primary focus and value: To ascertain
what is being said in the language and context of the
scripture. They clearly separate the destruction of 70 AD
with the future return of Christ, primarily because at the
same time they are looking at the minute scripture in
question, they are operating with a full knowledge [textual
meaning] of the entire Word of God. The
detractors never do this. They just want Christ dead and
gone. It is the only motive for the argument they put
forth. |