The Apostle John thought the end was near...

by pirata 33 Replies latest watchtower bible

  • pirata
    pirata

    I used to always justify that the apostles (and Paul) thought the end was near because the "mini-end" (Jerusalem's destruction in 70CE) had not yet happened.

    Then it dawned on me that 1st/2nd/3rd John were written in 98CE (at least according to the back of my NWT), AFTER Jerusalem's destruction.

    1 John 2:18 (New International Version)

    Warnings Against Denying the Son

    18 Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour.

    Not only was it the last day, it was the last hour.

  • sabastious
    sabastious

    Simple yet damning evidence indeed.

    -Sab

  • leavingwt
    leavingwt

    Related. . .

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dispensationalism

    There are plenty of modern denominations that do not get caught up in thinking that they are living at a special time.

  • pirata
    pirata

    So It seems to me that when The Apostle John wrote the following:

    Revelation 22:20 (New American Standard Bible)

    20 He who ( A ) testifies to these things says, "Yes, ( B ) I am coming quickly " Amen ( C ) Come, Lord Jesus.

    He was actually expecting Jesus to come soon (vs. some Christians who have suggested that Jesus meant "When I come, it will be in a speed manner").

  • leavingwt
    leavingwt

    John was not aware of the invisible return in the year ______ CE. (Just pick a date that suits your fancy.)

  • sabastious
    sabastious
    John was not aware of the invisible return in the year ______ CE. (Just pick a date that suits your fancy.)

    Ooo! Ooo!

    I'll pick 1984, the year of my birth!

    Also a crazy book!

    -Sab

  • SweetBabyCheezits
    SweetBabyCheezits

    I dabbled in preterism (before I realized there was a name for it) before realizing deciding the bible was bull butter.

    Back then, several passages made it seem to me that the 70CE fall of Jerusalem was the main event to which bible writers were pointing. (Also considering the 'great trib which has not occurred, no, nor will occur again' text.)

    For example, Luke 9:27 (NIV) says....

    "I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.”

    JWs, among others, would have believers think that Jesus was foretelling the transfiguration, which occurred 8 days later. That was ridiculous to me, since it would've been superfluous for him to say 'some standing there wouldn't die before it happened.'

    Seriously, would that have been necessary to say?? How many of them DID die within that 8 days? BUT if the focus was on the 70CE destruction a few decades later, well then it would make a little more sense that some would die and others would survive in that time frame.

    Of course, now I realize that the gospel was just another collection of writings, susceptible to the errors and disinformation of other records from that era.

  • Leolaia
    Leolaia

    Of course the author of Revelation construed the end as very near.

    1:1: The vision concerns "things which are now to take place very soon" (not over two thousand years later).

    1:3: The book would make "the man who reads this prophecy" (i.e. the person reading it at the time it was written) very happy "because the time is close".

    1:7: The very people who put Jesus to death are prophesied as witnessing his return on the clouds of heaven (compare the similar statements in the synoptic gospels, cf. Mark 8:38-9:1, 13:29-30, 14:62)

    2:5: The Christians living in Ephesus are warned that if they do not shape up by the time Jesus comes to them, he will cast judgment on this particular church.

    2:15-16: The Christians living in Pergamum who accept the teachings of the Nicolaitans are told that Jesus "shall soon come to you" and if they have not repented, Jesus will attack them "with the sword out my mouth".

    2:20-23: The Christians living in Thyatira are told that Jesus will soon kill the false prophetess Jezebel and all her followers.

    3:3-5: The Christians living in Sardis are told that if they do not repent, Jesus will come to them like a thief.

    3:9-11: The Christians living in Philadelphia are told that that Jesus is "coming soon" and if they are faithful, Jesus will "keep them from the time of trial which will come to the whole world to test the people of the world".

    3:20: Jesus' coming is so close that he tells the Christians living in Laodicea that "I am standing at the door knocking".

    6:9-11: The Christians who had died in persecution prior to the writing of Revelation are told to wait just "a little longer" before the full number of Christians are martyred (see ch. 13-14).

    12:12: The Devil, having been cast to earth (see 2:13 which has the Devil already enthroned on earth in the city of Pergamum), knows that "his time is short".

    17:10-12: Of the seven kings of the "great city which has (present tense) over all the rulers of the earth" (v. 18), i.e. Rome, five have already fallen at the time of writing, one is on the throne, while the last king "must remain only a short while". Thus only a brief reign separates the current emperor from the Beast responsible for destroying the city. And when the Beast (who is one of the prior kings, i.e. Nero) reigns as the eighth king, he is accompanied by ten foreign kings who will have authority "only for a single hour".

    22:6-7: Jesus through his angel promises the author that his vision concerns "things that must soon take place" and he declares: "Look, I am coming soon!".

    22:10: The author is instructed to "not seal up the words of the prophecy of this scroll, because the time is near". This is a reversal of the sealing motif in the book of Daniel, which has the angel instructing Daniel to seal up his book until the time of "end" (12:4; the time when the book of Daniel was first circulated, i.e. the time of the Maccabean crisis, cf. 11:35, 40), which is an internal plot device to explain why no one had seen this book until the time of Antiochus Epiphanes; the book had supposedly been sealed up for generations until the time came for the book to be unsealed and circulated. In contrast to this, John is told that his book must not be sealed up for a later generation but circulated immediately, as the time is the close and the message was intended for those in the Asian churches (ch. 2-3) who needed to hear what the prophecy has to say.

    22:20: Jesus repeats his promise that "I am coming soon", which is the note the book ends with.

  • GrandmaJones
  • pirata
    pirata

    Excellent list. Thanks L.

    I'm not sure what the implications of this are though, at least to use when reasoning with JWs.. Any thoughts as to how this could be used?

Share this

Google+
Pinterest
Reddit