THE RETURN OF JESUS
Acts 1:6-7 : Therefore when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, are you now restoring the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It isn’t for you to know times or seasons which the Father has set within his own authority."
The possible return of Jesus, its timing and its core features were not that much defined in the Gospels or in the apostolic letters. Thus, we can say, that the biblical account is a bit vague in the so called New Testament. It is also characteristic that after the cross, after the resurrection right before the Ascension even the disciples wanted to know, what will be going to happen, what will be the next step, how will the mission unfold, how the kingdom of God will emerge, and as a task group, what the Apostles and the disciples in a broader sense should or must do?
The question of his disciples contained their expectation, that after everything had been done by Jesus for salvation and for redemption, the right time should have finally arrived to establish the kingdom for Israel. It was not only a common expectation, but it was almost a demand of them, and although it was wrapped in a humble question, still it was an expressed request, like what are you waiting for Master, especially any further?
Jesus answered them, that albeit the re-establishment of the kingdom for Israel will eventually and surely happen, and everything accurately follows the divine plan, it is not for you to know the allocated date of it in advance, because for the right reasons it is heavily classified by Heaven, and you do not have the clearance for it, because it is an information of a need to know basis, and right now only God in Heaven knows that.
Although Jesus in the Gospel clearly told the disciples, that it is not their explicit business to know the future, still he foretold future events, practically in three main categories.
First, when he foretold his disciples that "The Son of Man will be delivered up into the hands of men, and they will kill him; and when he is killed, on the third day he will rise again."
The apostles were not particularly happy to hear about that their Master would not be crowned with anything else but with the crown made from thorn. The events of his passion, happened very soon, within less than a year.
The second category is when he foretold some events, which should happen within a generation or more accurately within that contemporary generation, as he said in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 13, that "Most assuredly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things are accomplished."
Among these events were the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, the devastation of the city of Jerusalem, asJesus told them, that "Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone on another, which will not be thrown down."
He also predicted the upcoming Roman-Jewish war, by saying that "For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. ... There will be famines and troubles. These things are the beginning of birth pains."
This war began on the orders of Emperor Nero, and in its destruction level is deemed by the scholars close to the damages of the holocaust in the 20th century. Also, after the war the Romans crucified hundreds of thousands of Jews, enslaved other hundreds of thousands, from the looted golden treasure of the Jerusalem temple the Romans forced the enslaved Jews to build the Colosseum in Rome, the gladiator center and human sacrificing arena for the glory of the Roman pagan gods.
It is hard to overestimate the brutality and the deadly effectiveness of the Roman legions at the end of the Jewish-Roman war, which had flamed for four cruel years from 66 CE to 70 CE.
Albeit the Jews kept destroying the incoming Roman legions on their route, the Romans had received more and more reinforcements and finally they encircled and besieged Jerusalem. The siege could have lasted almost for ever, having enough supplies inside, more than enough fighters in numbers and quality, but a series of civil war broke out within the heavily fortified walls of Jerusalem, and that exactly happened, what turned to be an English maxima later, that united we stand, but divided we fall. Jesus foretold this in a parable, as knowing their thoughts, he said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. (Matthew:12:25 )
His foretelling regarding his own generation, culminated in the prophecy, that the Jerusalem congregation, which not participated in the war on any sides or parties, fled to the Pella area, which is today in Northwest Jordan. He said about this event , that "when you see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, ... Pray that your flight won't be in the winter. For in those days there will be oppression, such as there has not been the like from the beginning of the creation which God created until now, and never will be."
This flight was still remembered, as the flight to Pella, by the early church fathers of some long centuries later, like Eusebius of Caesarea and Epiphanius of Salamis.
The third category of Jesus' foretelling is the so called eschatology, which means the last days, though it is not always clear that it means the end of the world and the human history, or the transformation of it, like the visible beginning of the Kingdom of God on Earth.
Nonetheless, about the end days, he said that “the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will be falling from the sky, and the powers that are in the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. Then he will send out his angels, and will gather together his chosen ones from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the sky.”
When will that happen we do not know. However, someone asked a famous Jewish rabbi, Amnon Yitzhak, that please tell me when the Messiah will be here? The Rabbi said, I think that it will happen within three month. The man began to cry. Why do you cry, asked the rabbi. The man said, because it is such a short time, I can not be well prepared for the arriving of the Messiah, I can not repent enough and clean myself to be worthy to see his entry in this world. The Rabbi said, that did not say, that the Messiah will be here within three month for sure, I said that I think, he could be here within three month.
However, I do not really understand why you are so anxious to meet the Messiah in three month, when God forbid, you can die tomorrow, or God forbid this very night, and then you must meet God the Almighty, the king of the Universe, who created Heaven and Earth. If you are anxious to meet the Messiah, you should cry everyday, because it may happen, that you will be forced to see the face of God not within three month but any day and any hour.
Thus, Jesus was right again, the hour of the end of the world irrelevant, because more than likely, way sooner than that we have to stand before the Judge in Heaven to give account what we have don or what we have not done, but we should have. May the Lord help us prepare for that hour, and make us able to praise God face to face by the Holy Spirit, AMEN
