What Do You Think About Jesus' Failed Prophecy?

Morocco

I suppose I’m addressing the believers/agnostics more than the atheists on this one, but please, everyone feel free to comment.

So, it is apparent from the scriptures that Jesus and his followers believed that the end of the world was coming in their own lifetime.

I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. – (Matthew 24:34, Mark 13:30)

I suppose you could debate those scriptures like the Watchtower has – “this generation” is some future generation. But what about these :

Matthew 16:28
“I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

Mark 9:1
“And he said to them, ‘I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power.’”

Luke 9:27
“I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.”

So “some standing here”, as in some listening to Jesus speaking, was in reference to people of that specific day (not day as in time, day as in 24 hour day). THOSE people, at THAT time. It was obvious that Jesus prophecy failed, unless he never made this prophecy which is a whole other can of worms and one which stinks just as bad. What does everything think about it?

steve2

Hey, go easy on him: he was only human; and give him some credit in the kindness department: He didn't threaten to excommunicate believers if they didn't accept his word as final...or did he? I might have to get back to you on this one.

Tyrone van leyen

I never thought of that before. It looks like when prophecies fail each sucessive generation puts their own slant on it to keep the hope alive in there times. The first of the gospels wern't even written until these apostles were old men. Maybe they were writing with the hopes of being one of that generation in there day because they were getting close to death themselves. It might have been their own cognitive dissonance in seeing this as a reality. There are so many hard to beleive things in the gospels and inconsistancies why not beleive that to. Either the gospels are the greatest story ever told or the greatest lie ever told. I think it is easier for people to accept because it offers hope and talks of love and kindnes. It certainly has had a massive impact on the world in the last 2000 years. I wonder how the christians explain these scriptures you have pointed out.

zeroday

Hey, go easy on him: he was only human

No he wasn't he never existed.

thebiggestlie

wasnt one of the apostle spared the experience of “tasting death” by god miraculosly delivering him.... or am i just speaking out of my butt? it caould always be argued that they didnt face death because thry continued living in heaven.... And saying that Yahoshua never existed is a stretch....

Terry

I had a friend named Harry when I was a teenager. Harry was a real nut! But, he was vastly entertaining.

One thing Harry loved to do is go downtown and stand on a streetcorner looking up into the sky and making wondrous sounds like, "Wow!"

It took no time at all for a crowd to mimic what Harry was doing craining their necks, shielding their eyes, desperately searching the void for some sign of wonder or amazement. It became an avalanche of crowd frenzy that knocked me out with the hysteria it produced.

It hardly ever failed to produce somebody who claimed to actually "see" something and point to "it" for others to squint and gape at.

Why do I mention Harry and his antics?

I think the Jesus stories are really about Harry. Well not my Harry. But, somebody alot like Harry.

We're still talking about him and have no idea what he really "saw" or said or thought. It just snowballed into a crowd hysteria with people "seeing" and pointing to an imagined "something".

Harry.....I miss you, buddy.

steve2

No he wasn't he never existed.

Ummm, okay, whatever you say. Just give me a few days to readjust my reasons for ever having believed in him...but that's okay because I think those reasons are no more solid than the reasons I had for believing in the relatively recent walking-on-water Watchtower Society; namely, I believed in it primarily because everyone else around me believed in it. An embarrassing foundation for belief if ever there was one, wouldn't you say?

Leolaia

Bible scholar Dale Allison has an interesting theological take on it. He points out that in orthodox belief, the incarnate Jesus was fully divine and fully man, but most Christians balk at the implications. This was explored to some extent in Martin Scorsese's Last Temptation of Christ (if Jesus was "fully man," then he had to have experienced the trials of the flesh that all men do), but look at how many Christians were outraged at such a portrayal. Wouldn't insisting on 100% infallibility construe Jesus in more docetic terms? What if a human Jesus was capable of making mistakes? Did he not empty himself of his divine glory to take the form of a "slave" (cf. Philippians 2)?

Qcmbr

In our theology John hasn't yet died and was caught up to do further work. Its also very probable that since this was written much later than the actual event the scribe who wrote it did what all believers in every faith do (on some level) and that is apply things directly to themself. Its possible Jesus never said 'this generation' or qualified it by further description that is now lost.
It also depends on what 'This' means - as I read it it refers to the generation that see the great tribulation that will be the worst the world will ever see (this doesn't match the sack of Jerusalem to me - just not big enough also the other signs like the preaching being worldwide not particularly fulfilled.) I don't see it as referring to the apostles generation or mine particularly.

Abandoned

Sorry to dig deeper into your topic than you may have intended, but this brings up what I feel is one of the greatest mysteries about humans. Why is there such a necessity to give everything meaning? There always has to be a deeper meaning. Have you ever made a batch of cookies? You followed the recipe or you have it stored in your head and after mixing all of the engredients together and baking for ten to twelve minutes, you have a delicious treat. What's the deeper meaning there? Why does a sunset or anything else need to have a deeper meaning?

What does this have to do with Jesus? Well, I don't think we'd still be talking about this guy if we weren't addicted to assigning things and experiences, yep you guessed it, deeper meaning. There isn't just a universe that we demonstrate through actions that we appreciate, we need to find someone to thank. This person who needs to be thanked, isn't capable of viewing how much we enjoy the universe, no, he needs a specific thank you and if he doesn't get it, we may be destroyed, go to hell, be cursed, come back as a lesser being, or one of the other myriad choices that are to befall the "unbeliever."

Have you ever given your friend a gift? What was the motive for doing it? Was it to be thanked or was it to see your friend enjoy your gift? So humans generally do things to be nice, but somehow the universe must have deeper meaning. That seems so unnecessary to me.

What Do You Think About Jesus' Failed Prophecy?

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