Christian Hope through Fulfilled Prophecy

There are over 100 passages in the New Testament that declared the imminence of the prophesied events. It is clear that Jesus and his disciples expected his return while some of them were still alive-in their own generation. Here are just a few interesting examples: In Matthew 10:23, Jesus tells his disciples that He would return before they had finished going through all the towns of Israel. In Matthew 16:27-28, Jesus tells his disciples that He would return before some of them have died. In Matthew 26:64, Jesus tells Caiaphas, the scribes, and the elders that they would personally see Him returning in judgment. In Luke 21, verses 22 and 32, Jesus tells his disciples that all prophecy would be fulfilled in THEIR generation. In verse 36 Jesus emphasized that the events He just listed were ABOUT TO HAPPEN. (See the New International Version or Young's Literal Translation.) In Revelation 1:1-3 and 22:6-20 Jesus tells his first-century followers that He would return SOON and that the events of Revelation MUST TAKE PLACE SHORTLY. There is a radical re-thinking underway among theologians about eschatology. Many now see that the biblical 'last days' were not meant to be the end of the world, but rather the end of the Old Covenant order which culminated in the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in AD 70. There is always much resistance to a challenge to widely held beliefs. We often have very ingrained presuppositions and we have much at stake if most of our neighbors hold to a common (but perhaps incorrect) view of something. There is the problem of what psychiatrists call 'cognitive dissonance,' which is 'a mental conflict that occurs when, confronted with challenging new information, most people seek to preserve their current understanding of the world by rejecting, explaining away, or avoiding the new information.' This book will increase your confidence in the reliability in the Bible and in Jesus. Fear not to be challenged and changed.