When it comes to the reliability of the Gospels and the stories of Jesus, a common question that comes up is, “Did Jesus predict that he would return within the lifetime of his disciples?” Skeptics often look at a variety of passages in the Gospels where it seems like Jesus might be doing that and they think, “Look, here is Jesus predicting that he is going to come back within the lifetime of his disciples and he did not do it. Therefore, what he said cannot be trusted. The Gospels cannot be true.” That is a common argument among skeptics.
I think that argument misses the mark on a number of levels. I think it misunderstand eschatological language. Jesus does talk about how he could come back at any moment. He does talk about the eminence of his coming, but there is nothing that binds him to the idea that he had to come back while his disciples were still alive. Could he have come back at any point? Yes. That was not a statement, however, that he was compelled to or had promised to.
There is nothing that binds him to the idea that he had to come back while his disciples were still alive.Often, people point to passages in sections of scripture, such as the Olivet Discourse where Jesus seems to say, “Those standing here will experience these things.” A closer look into that passage will show that this experience that Jesus refers not to the second coming, but to the trials and tribulations of the inner advent period and particularly the destruction of the temple. The disciples very much did see that. They saw the persecutions and trials even soon after Jesus had ascended. Many of them would have even seen the destruction of the temple and seen Jesus’s words fulfilled. None of those things, though, means that Jesus had to come back in the lifetime of his disciples.
When we look in the New Testament and Jesus talks about it being the last days, we have to remember that the phrase “last days” is not about the quantity of time. It is about an eschatological concept that the next thing that will happen on an eschatological level is that Jesus will return. So, we still long for that. We still look forward to that. We still trust that one day soon, we pray, he will come back.
