Christianity and Religion

I recently wrote a prominent Catholic apologist about a problem I see in the bible, and thus accepting the Christian faith. The dialogue was a simple question and answer:

• I am an honest inquirer of religion and would like to have your esteemed opinion on a subject regarding the bible, I know that Christians use the rule of interpreting scirpture using scripture, and I have used that in my appraisal of the Christian religion and its basic doctrines. For example, in Jer.28:9 it states "...when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, [then] shall the prophet be known, that the LORD hath truly sent him." This is a clear reference to using a prophet's predictions to see if they are really a prophet. Now, if we apply that metric to Jesus of Nazareth where he states inMatthew 24:30-24, "Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth[c] will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near.Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it[e] is near, right at the door.Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened", there is a problem. The problem being Jesus predicted the coming of the End of Days within his own generation, but the end did not come. tHis seemsd to imvalidate Jesus by using the bible metric. I do not know if I am simply misinterpreting this verse, but I figured I owuld ask a Christian who has an extensive history with this type of thing as to how a Christian deals with this. Thank You- Kole Elyon
• 1:28am

  Dave Armstrong
  

  
  

  Navarre Bible Commentary (one of the best) interprets it like this:
  “This generation”: this verse is a clear example of what we say in the note on Matthew 24:1 about the destruction of Jerusalem being itself a symbol. “This generation” refers firstly to the people alive at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem. But, since that event is symbolic of the end of the world, we can say with St. John Chrysostom that “the Lord was speaking not only of the generation then living, but also of the generation of the believers; for he knows that a generation is distinguished not only by time but also by its mode of religious worship and practice: this is what the Psalmist means when he says that ‘such is the generation of those who seek him’(Ps 24:6)” (Hom. on St. Matthew, 77).
  It's essentially a matter of one type of biblical idiom, and apocalyptic language. The problem comes in interpreting the Bible literally in a blanket fashion. It was not intended to be: not many parts of it which utilize non-literal idiom or hyperbole, etc.
• 1:36am

  Kole Elyon Nicholas Poirier
  

  
  

  Thank You, this explains a bit, but I'm not so sure if it fully convincing. I just appreciate for you to take the time to answer my question. God Bless.
  
  Mr. Armstrong was great and responded quickly. I may write him again in regards to religion and life's big questions. In regards to this specific issue, it seems that the Christians play rope a dope and dance around the problem of Jesus predicting the end of the world within his own generation, and thus invalidating his claim to messiah and prophet, by saying it is simply a metaphor not to be taken literally. I find it too much of a stretch to be able to accept all the claims that Christianity makes in regards to Jesus. I will continue to ponder issues such as these, but it will take a back seat to life's other adventures.
  -Kole Elyon