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¿Qué tiene que ver conmigo? por Teófila Gottfried

Lo que leemos en la Biblia tiene que ver con todos los seres humanos, sean cristianos o judíos, ateos o agnósticos, budistas, musulmanes o adherentes a alguna de las filosofías o nuevas religiones que surgen en el mundo. ¿Por qué? Ver mayor información sobre este interesante libro.

Scripture of The Day - St. John 14:6

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Escritura del día - San Juan 14,6

Jesús le dijo: Yo soy el camino, y la verdad, y la vida; nadie viene al Padre, sino por mí.

Bibelstelle des Tages - Johannes 14,6

Jesus spricht zu ihm: Ich bin der Weg und die Wahrheit und das Leben; niemand kommt zum Vater, denn durch mich!

End of the World predictions

Jesus made end of the world predictions when he said: For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets and shall shew great signs and wonders insomuch that if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold he is in the desert; go not forth, behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. For as the lightening cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together. 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. 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. 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. Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh. So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, THIS GENERATION SHALL NOT PASS, TILL ALL THESE THINGS BE FULFILLED. (Matthew 24:24-34)

It is claimed by some that Jesus' end of the world predictions were not fulfilled because, as they explain, he lived over 2,000 years ago and therefore spoke to the generation of that time, informing them that they would not pass away without seeing all of the signs of his second coming and of the end of the world as we know it. We know that Jesus' second coming has not yet taken place but the generation of his time, the people to which he spoke over 2,000 years ago have all passed away without seeing the signs of which he spoke in the above scripture.

We are about to see how a single misinterpreted word in the Bible can lead to genuine confusion as well as become a tool to deceive through what only appears to be logic. What is also amazing is that one does not need a knowledge of ancient or modern Hebrew, Greek or Aramaic because the Bible is literally a commentary on itself and dictionary offering the various meaning of its words as we are about to demonstrate.

A Generation In God's Eyes: Essential to Understanding Jesus' End of the World Predictions

Let it be branded on our brains that the meaning/s that we attach to words may, and often do differ from those that the Bible attaches to them. If we are sincere in our quest to understand biblical end of the world predictions, we must abandon our own narrow-minded definitions of words and accept the ones that the Word of God puts forth. In the average mind, the word generation refers to all of the people born around the same time, a stage in a family history and the average time for a new generation which is about thirty years. Although the Bible also attaches these meanings to generation, there are other very significant meanings that the Good Book assigns to this important word as demonstrated by scripture. Let's go to the book of Psalms.

Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the GENERATION of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah. (Psalm 24:3-6)

The above scripture clearly refers to ALL who have clean hands and a pure heart as a single generation. Now, obviously, not all who serve the Lord are born into the same generation. This is why king David spoke so confidently of the generations to be born after him among which there would be those who served Jehovah. He said:

That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children. (Psalm 78:6)

Notice that Psalm 24:3-6 refers to everyone, although they were not all born within a span of thirty years, as belonging to a single generation. The servants of God belong to many generations spanning thousands of years. Why are they all being referred to as a single generation? It is clear to see that the Bible's use of the word generation is by no means restricted to referring to people who were born around the same time. The scripture lumps all of the believers, regardless of their time of birth or death, together as one generation. The Bible will use generation in the singular to refer to people of many different generations who share something in common. In this case, all who are of a pure heart and whose hands are clean, share in common their obedience to the Lord. Is this the only case in which we see the Bible using generation in this manner? No, it is not. We read:

His seed shall be mighty upon earth: the GENERATION of the upright shall be blessed. (Psalm 112:2)

We read of the upright in the Bible and see them in our own times. Obviously, there are upright people in every generation that has ever existed, and yet they are all referred to as one single generation. This truth is seen again as we read:

He shall go to the GENERATION of his fathers; they shall never see light. (Psalm 49:19)

In the above scripture, fathers is in the plural. Fathers means ancestors. It should be common knowledge that a person's fathers make up several generations. Your father, grandfather and great-grandfather are three different generations. Why then does the scripture refer to them all as one generation? Again, the answer is that the Bible will use generation in the singular to refer to people of many different generations who share something in common. All of the fathers in the above scripture are deceased. It doesn't matter when they died or when they lived, once they passed away, they became part of a single generation of deceased fathers, all lumped together as one.

Further proof of the Bible's use of generation to refer to people of many generations is seen in the New Testament as well. We go to the book of Luke where we read:

And the lord commended the unjust steward because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. (Luke 16:8)

The above is taken from a parable of Jesus. The Bible makes plain that the children of the world are the unsaved, and that the children of light are the servants of the Lord Jesus. Notice how the scriptures lump all of the children of the world into one generation. It doesn't matter that the unsaved represent the very young to the very old. The Bible here is lumping them all together as one generation, just as it had done with the righteous, also lumping them into one generation.

The Bible's alternative use of the word generation needs no further proof. However, we are going to take what we have learned a step further so as to see how the Word of God crushes to pieces the accusation that Jesus erred in his end of the world predictions. We are going to see that not only does the Bible freely use the word generation to refer to a group of people of many generations, who share something in common; it also uses the word generation to refer to the entire world. Yes, the entire world is called one generation. This is another key to understanding Jesus predictions of the end of the world as we know it. Now then, we know from the Bible that there have been two worlds. We have the pre-flood world and the post-flood world which is the present world in which we live today. The Bible also informs us that there will be a new Earth. The apostle Peter wrote:

For this they willingly are ignorant of that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. (2 Peter 3:5-7)

Now then, where in the Bible do we see the entire earth being referred to as one generation? Let's first go to the book of Genesis where we are going to see the normal use of the word generation as well as its use in reference to the entire world and all of its inhabitants. We read:

And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair, and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Genesis 6:1-10)

We have encountered the common usage of the word generation, now let's continue reading to see its usage in reference to the entire world.

The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. (Genesis 6:11-13)

So far, it is not hard to see that God is speaking of the entire earth and every person that is alive at that time. We continue to chapter seven to read:

And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in THIS GENERATION. (Genesis 7:1)

It cannot be any plainer before our eyes that God is referring to the entire world as one single generation. When God said that Noah was seen righteous before him in "this generation", he was not referring to those of Noah's age group because he had already said that the whole entire earth was corrupt. He did not point out any specific age group as being righteous. The truth that all of the generations alive on earth in Noah's time is referred to as "this generation" cannot be disputed. It is right before our eyes.

That old world perished. It was the end of the world as we know it. But, it was replaced by the one that mankind inhabits today, this present earth. Remember that when God spoke of the destruction of the Earth, he called all who lived at that time, one generation. It was for those people, the end of their entire world by the great deluge. Likewise, when the Lord Jesus spoke of the end of this present world, he again chooses to refer to all who lived and lives in post-flood Earth as one single generation. The post-flood earth is this present world of today. Remember that Jesus speaks of the signs that will be seen when the end is near. These signs include the great tribulation, the darkening of the sun, the failure of the moon to give light, the falling of the stars, the powers of heaven being shaken, the mourning of the peoples of the earth at his second coming which shall be a most spectacular event (Revelation 6:12-13, 8:12). Are not these same signs spoken of in Revelation as signs TO COME (Revelation 1:1)? Yes, they are, meaning they have not yet been fulfilled! Jesus never said they would be fulfilled in his time. He said that they would be fulfilled before THIS GENERATION passes. In other words, they would be fulfilled before THIS PRESENT WORLD passes. Those are his words. The fact that someone misinterpreted them, being ignorant of his use of the word generation to refer to the entire post-flood world, does not mean he made a false prophecy. It means that individual made a false accusation.

Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen (Revelation 1:7).

There is no mistake or fallacy in Jesus' end of the world predictions.

©2006 All rights reserved.

Based on true events, The Third Man by Angela Sheffield, brings the Bible up close and personal as the characters face real issues of life: Betrayal, deceit, romance, bitterness, anger against God, hopelessness, will power, perplexity, triumph, unforgiveness, mental illness, and the "Alcohol made me do it" excuse. Read chapter one FREE now.

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