Matthew Chapter 24

Proximity of the Kingdom of God

VERSE 32-34 “Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So you also, when you see all these things, know that it (the Kingdom of God–Luke 17:21) is near—at the doors! Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.”

“Non-believers have seized upon this passage claiming that it manifestly has not been fulfilled, and hence proves our Lord to have been a false prophet. They apply the prophecy wholly to the troubles connected with the fall of Israel’s national polity in A.D. 70, and contemptuously remark that that generation and many more passed away without seeing the fulfillment of “all these things.” Our answer to this, of course, is that our Lord’s prophecy is not understood –that it referred only in part to the trouble upon Israel which culminated in A.D. 70 (the majority however is in reference to the trouble coming upon the whole world and especially at the end of this age).

But to meet the objection, certain Christian writers have been led to claim that the words “this generation” really meant this race, the Jews, shall not pass away until all these predictions have been fulfilled.

But we must dissent from this interpretation for several reasons:

(1) Although the words “generation” and “race” may be said to come from a common root or starting point, yet they are not the same; and in Scriptural usage the two words are quite distinct.

Notice that in the New Testament when the word generation is used in the sense of race or posterity, it is always from the Greek gennema (as in Matt. 3:7; 12:34; 23:33; Luke 3:7) or from genos (as in 1 Pet. 2:9). But in the three different records of this prophecy our Lord is credited with using a wholly different Greek word (genea) which does not mean race, but has the same significance as our English word generation. Other uses of this Greek word (genea) prove that it is not used with the significance of race, but in reference to people living contemporaneously. We cite in proof– Matt. 1:17; 11:16; 12:41; 23:36; Luke 11:50, 51; 16:8; Acts 13:36; Col. 1:26; Heb. 3:10.

(2) Our Lord could not have meant the Jewish race, and it would have been improper to have used a Greek word signifying race, because the Jewish race was not the subject of the apostles’ inquiry or of our Lord’s prophecy in reply. Israel is barely referred to in the prophecy, and to have said, This race will not pass away until all be fulfilled, would have left the matter open to the question as to which or what race might be meant, for no particular race is indicated. It would, therefore, if the word meant race, be as proper to say that it meant the human race as to say that it referred to the Jewish race.

But understanding genea here, as elsewhere, to mean generation, and recognizing that our Lord’s words were a prophecy covering the entire Gospel age, we have no difficulty in understanding the statement to mean–“This generation [which will witness the signs inquired for by the apostles and just enumerated by our Lord–namely, the darkening of the sun and moon and the falling of the stars]–THIS generation shall not pass away until all these things be fulfilled.” In other words, the signs mentioned will occur within a generation-epoch in the close of the age.

The sprouting of the fig tree may have been but a casual remark, but we incline to think that it was not. The peculiar circumstance narrated of our Lord’s curse upon a fig tree which bore no fruit, and which withered away directly (Matt. 21:19, 20) inclines us to believe that the fig tree in this prophecy may be understood to signify the Jewish nation.

If so, it is being signally fulfilled; for not only are thousands of Israelites returning to Palestine, but the Zionist movement, as all know, has now assumed such proportions as to justify Conventions of representatives from all parts of the world to meet year by year to put in practical shape the proposal for the reorganization of a Jewish state in Palestine. These buds will thrive, but will bear no perfect fruit before October 1914—the full end of “Gentile Times.”

It should be understood that the Pastor penned these words in 1897 long before the end of the “Gentile Times”. At the time it was believe that, by then Israel would most likely be recognized as a nation once again, of course this prediction was off by about 34 years. Nevertheless the Lord’s prophecy dates from the time the fig tree would “put forth its leaves” not when it would blossom.

A “generation” might be reckoned as equivalent to a century (practically the present limit) or one hundred and twenty years, Moses’ lifetime and the Scripture limit. (Gen. 6:3)

Reckoning a hundred years from 1780, the date of the first sign (“The dark day”, mentioned in Verse 29), the limit would reach to 1880; and, to our understanding, every item predicted had begun to be fulfilled at that date; the “harvest” or gathering time beginning October 1874; the organization of the Kingdom and the taking by our Lord of his great power as the King in April 1878, and the time of trouble or “day of wrath” which began October 1874, and will cease about 1915; and the sprouting of the fig tree.

Once again bear in mind that these were the thoughts of the Pastor in 1897, by 1916 he realized that he had erred in some of his predictions, that 1914-15 would not see the close of the time of trouble but rather the beginning of the trouble. The first plague (WWI) marking its beginning.

Those who choose might without inconsistency say that the century or generation (100-120 years) might as properly be reckon from the last sign, the falling of the stars, as from the first, the darkening of the sun and moon: and a century beginning 1833 would within the 120 year generational limit take us to the establishment of the nation of Israel in 1948.

Many (at that time) were still living who witnessed the star-falling sign. Those who are walking with us in the light of present truth are not looking for things to come (to begin) which are already here, but are waiting for the consummation of matters already in progress.” (D602-605)

In our next post we shall expand upon these verses a bit more and take another view of the generation spoken of.