Rusty Venture

Mine is Matthew 24:34. Leading up to it Jesus is talking about all the really bad stuff that's going to happen during the tribulation. Then he finishes it off by telling his disciples that not only are all these things are gonna happen but that he's going to return for the tail end of it before "this generation passes" or "this generation will not pass away" depending on which version you read.

It's been a really long time and well...

To me this one section of the Bible clearly speaks to the fact that Jesus was wrong. The world didn't end and he didn't come back and everyone he was speaking to has been chillin' in the ground for some 2000 millenia.

What's stated is clear and obvious and it never happened---and it's really important; very key to the whole religion. How does someone read this and then just ignore?

What's your fave?

spamandham

I actually don't think "this generation" referred to the 40 years following Jesus. I think it referred to the audience of the author of that phrase. We call him "Mark".

Juststeve

Or it could mean the generation that witnesses the tribulation which has not yet happened. Some future generation.

Steve

Petergdi

I don't see how it could mean that. The simplest explanation is that Jesus was mistaken. I think that most Christians have little difficulty with the idea that Jesus could be mistaken.

Peter.

Juststeve

Peter:

I agree that Jesus was mistaken is the simplest explanation for this and several other saying recorded in the Bible where Jesus made an erroneous prediction. This of course requires a real Jesus to make the mistake. A wholly fictional Jesus that some here imagine would not have been written making obvious errors in his predictions.

The best explanation for all the facts is that some guy named Jesus made some prediction that were too well known to ignore and they turned out to be false. Christian apologists are still trying to explain them away. They want to believe he was more than just a man.

Steve

show_no_mercy

To corroborate this, Jesus says generally the same thing to the high priest at his trial:

Mark 14

61 Again the high priest asked him, "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?"

62 "I am," said Jesus. "And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven."

This implies that the high priest will see "the son of man" coming to Earth on a cloud. Which obviously didn't happen.

Toto

Most Christians do seem to have a lot of difficulty with this idea.

Although, come to think of it, Jesus is reported to have spoken clearly against divorce, and most Christians have accepted no fault divorce.

motorhead

I think it's Mark 9:1 where Jesus tells some people they won't taste death before the Son of Man comes. Well, they all tasted death, and the Son of Man did not come. The NT is full of the idea of an imminent return of Jesus. Christians choose to ignore it, or interpret it somehow to mean the future.

Petergdi

Some apologists maybe. But there is a long standing position, widely regarded as orthodox, that Jesus had limited knowledge. I think it is possible that you are sometimes confounding what atheists often pretend that orthodox Christians believe for the purpose of making fun of them with the actual range of orthodox positions.

Common problems of this sort are:

- pretending that orthodox trinitarianism is a licence to divide the substance and confound the persons to give the most absurd results

- pretending that "sola fides" means that protestants think that they are saved by mental assent to a series of propositions. (The Roman Church has stopped pretending this, but that doesn't stop others).

- pretending that Calvin and most Calvinists weren't or aren't compatibilists. (I am not a Calvinist, but I see very little excuse for misrepresentation of what others believe.)

Peter.

Solo

Given all the theological theories (full and partial, preterism, allegorical meaning of terms, etc.) away the hidden meaning of this generation, I am surprised you should say that Christians have difficulty with saying Jesus was wrong. In fact I know only of one Christian commentator, C.S.Lewis, who admitted Jesus was in error due to the limitations of his incarnation (Mk 13:32). If you could show me a Christian theological argument admitting Jesus' error I would be grateful.

Best,
Jiri