The Truth Sets You Free

1.    Everything Jesus said would happen, happened exactly as and when He said it would – within the lifetime of his contemporaries.

2.    Everything every New Testament writer expected to happen, happened exactly as and when they expected it would – within their lifetime – as they were guided into all truth and told the things that were to come by the Holy Spirit (Jn. 16:13)

3.    Scholars across a broad spectrum are in general agreement that this is exactly how every NT writer and the early Church understood Jesus’ words. If they were wrong on something this important, how can we trust them to have conveyed other aspects of the faith accurately, such as the requirements for salvation?

4.    No inspired NT writer, writing twenty or more years later, ever corrected their Holy-Spirit-guided understanding and fulfillment expectations (Jn. 16:13). Neither should we. Instead, they intensified their language as the “appointed time of the end” (Dan. 13:4; Hab. 2:3) drew near – form Jesus’ “this generation” (Mat. 24:34), to Peter’s “the end of all things is at hand” and “for it is time for judgment to begin” (1 Pet.4:7, 17), and John’s “this is the last hour… it is the last hour” (1 Jn. 2:18).

5.    Partial fulfillment is not satisfactory. 3 out of 5, 7 out of 10, etc., won’t work. Partial does not pass the test of a true prophet (Deut. 18:18-22). Again, Jesus time-restricted all of his end-time predictions to occur within the 1st-century time frame.

6.    God is faithful (2 Pet. 3:9) and “not a man that he should lie” (Num. 23:19). Faithfulness means not only doing what was promised, but also doing it when it was promised.

7.    1st-century fulfillment expectations were the correct ones and everything happened, right on time – no gaps, no gimmicks, no interruptions, no postponements, no delays, no exegetical gymnastics, and no changing the meaning of commonly used and normally understood words. Such manipulative devices have only given liberals and skeptics a foothold to discredit Christ’s Deity and the inerrancy of Scripture.

8.    What needs adjusting is out understanding of both the time and nature of fulfillment, and not manipulation of the time factor to conform to our popular, futuristic, and delay expectations.

9.    The kingdom of God was the central teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ, is a present but greatly under-realized reality, and must again become to the central teaching of his Church.

9.5 We have been guilty of proclaiming a half-truth – a partially delivered faith to the world and the fellow Christians. We must repent and earnestly “contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). If Christianity has been as effective as it has by proclaiming that Jesus Christ, the messiah, came, died for our sins, bodily arose from the dead, and ascended to Heaven “at just the right time” (Rom. 5:6; Dan. 9:24-27), how much more effective might it be if we started preaching, teaching, and practicing the whole truth – i.e. a faith in which everything else also happened “at just the right time,” exactly as and when Jesus said it would and every NT writer expected (Jn. 16:13). Dare we continue to settle for less?

Surely today, the words of Martin Luther, as he stood in defense before the Diet of Worms in 1521, are still applicable and compelling for the “always reforming” Church.

Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do no trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures … and my conscience is captive to the Word of God …. I cannot do otherwise.